K Srikanth became only the second Indian men’s singles badminton player to lift a Grand Prix Gold title when the 20-year-old upset world number seven and top seed Boonsak Ponsana in his own backyard at the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Sunday.
The 13th seed, who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad,
got the better of the experienced Ponsana 21-16, 21-12 in just 34 minutes to clinch the crown without dropping a single game in the entire tournament.
The Grand Prix Gold event is just one rung below the coveted Super Series circuit in the Badminton World Federation’s tournament structure. National champion P Kashyap is the only other Indian to win a GP Gold title when he bagged the Syed Modi GP Gold crown in Lucknow last year.
In fact, Srikanth’s effort is all the more commendable since no Indian men’s singles player has won a tournament about the Grand Prix level outside India since Pullela Gopi Chand’s All England triumph in 2001.
In the final, Srikanth adopted an aggressive strategy against the wily Thai and the approach paid dividend as the Indian dominated the match throughout.
Understandably national coach Pullela Gopi Chand was elated with the victory and said it was a well thought out strategy to attack Ponsana as the courts were faster in Bangkok.
“We had discussed the way we wanted to approach the match yesterday. Earlier when Indian players had beaten Boonsak, the courts were slow and they had managed to tire him out. But here Srikanth had to dominate the net exchanges and he did that well,” he added.
The 13th seed, who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad,
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| K Srikanth with the Thailand GP Gold trophy |
The Grand Prix Gold event is just one rung below the coveted Super Series circuit in the Badminton World Federation’s tournament structure. National champion P Kashyap is the only other Indian to win a GP Gold title when he bagged the Syed Modi GP Gold crown in Lucknow last year.
In fact, Srikanth’s effort is all the more commendable since no Indian men’s singles player has won a tournament about the Grand Prix level outside India since Pullela Gopi Chand’s All England triumph in 2001.
In the final, Srikanth adopted an aggressive strategy against the wily Thai and the approach paid dividend as the Indian dominated the match throughout.
Understandably national coach Pullela Gopi Chand was elated with the victory and said it was a well thought out strategy to attack Ponsana as the courts were faster in Bangkok.
“We had discussed the way we wanted to approach the match yesterday. Earlier when Indian players had beaten Boonsak, the courts were slow and they had managed to tire him out. But here Srikanth had to dominate the net exchanges and he did that well,” he added.
congrats srikanth
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