Win over China's Lin Dan is Kidambi Srikanth's moment of truth

The final of the China Open was simply a formality in the eyes of many.  And this was not only because of perception. It was actually cold, hard statistics that gave rise to the feeling. Kidambi Srikkanth was a young, rising Indian player who has made it as high as 13th in the world and facing him was Lin Dan – a genius for whom rankings have ceased to matter.

A look at Lin Dan’s career record as he entered the final showed just why he is such a formidable presence. In his badminton career coming into the match, Dan had played 559 matches with 495 wins and just 64 losses. His record this year with 29 matches, 28 wins, 1 loss (due to injury, he gave a walkover to Jan O Jorgensen) was no less formidable.

Srikanth’s career record paled in comparison: 104 matches, 67 wins, 37 losses. This year itself, he has had a very ordinary 31 played, 16 wins, 15 losses.

These are numbers that illustrate the gap in class between the two players. In a piece for Firstpost _,_ former world no.16 and national champ Aparna Popat had once tried to explain Dan’s genius.

“The men’s singles game has evolved to one of tremendous power and speed. Leaps and dives have turned these players into semi-acrobats. Though Lin Dan is proficient in playing the fast and furious game, he is as capable of displaying the toss-drop conventional game too. With the pace of the rally being set by him, he constructs each point in such a way that each rally has a new tale to tell. His coach once commented that Lin Dan sees the court differently from all other players. No wonder, in 9 years at the top of the badminton world, no one has been able to decipher the game pattern of this genius.”

In the World Championships last year – Dan came into the tournament on the back of a 10-month break from badminton after winning his second Olympic gold in August 2012 in London. But despite being ranked 286 in the world at that point and needing a wild card to play in the tournament, he ended up winning his 5th World Championship crown. If that isn’t genius, nothing is.

Given that Srikanth idolises Dan, he knew the numbers and he knew who he was going up against. He also knew that in the real world, he would probably never be the owner of that kind of record. It was David vs Goliath in every sense.

And perhaps that is why the manner in which he took on the Chinese genius is worthy of praise. Sometimes when you come up against the greats, it takes you a while to get going. The only problem with that approach is that while you are trying to barely stay afloat, they blow by and after that, it becomes almost impossible to catch up.

That is what happened to Srikanth in his previous two encounters with the Chinese former world no.1. At the Thailand Open in 2012, Dan won 21-11, 21-13 and in the Badminton Asia Championships in 2014, it was even easier for Dan, as he won 21-7 21-14. It was just like practice.

It would be easy to say that Srikanth threw caution to the wind and attacked with great vigour. But that’s not what he did. Instead, he along with Pullela Gopichand, came up with a carefully constructed plan and found the means to follow through with it.

To begin with, Srikanth hardly displayed any nerves. Psychologically he was in it to win it. He came out, took the first two points and suddenly we were in a match. He was determined to not let the past be a factor.

If one allows Dan to control the pace of the match, he is impossible to counter. But Kidambi’s plan was to constantly change the pace of the match. He denied the Chinese star the opportunity to unleash his big smashes, preferring a soft approach to blunt Dan’s edge. That alone would not have been enough but the Indian was also alert enough to pick up the drop shots.

His strategy to counter the smashes helped him in this regard because it meant that some of the deception went out of the drop shots. He, in a sense, was waiting for them because that was the only aggressive move Dan had left. Despite that the first game seemed to be going the way of the Chinese star.

Egged on by a vociferous crowd, Dan was leading 19-17 before Kidambi stunned them into silence by taking the next four points and the game.

“I was injured during the last month, so getting into the final made me happy. Srikanth played positively. The loss of the first game affected my mood. I hadn’t practised the last few weeks, so I could not adjust my game,” said Dan later.

Dan reacted to the loss by becoming super aggressive but that also meant more errors. Srikanth, meanwhile, calmly waited for the opportunity to arise and then chose to often smash down the line. He was taking his chance and Dan’s frustration seemed to be growing.

In the past, we have seen Srikanth mess up such situations. At the 2014 Indian Open, he, the sixth seed, was leading China’s Sun Xeu, the ninth seed, 19-12 in the second game after having won the first game. Then he collapsed spectacularly to lose the match 21-16, 19-21, 13-21. But yesterday, he impressively kept it together and didn’t allow his concentration to waver.

The 21-19, 21-17 victory was deserved and for the first time since the 2012 Korea Open defeat to Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Dan had lost in a final.

“To beat Lin Dan in a final is a dream come true,” he said.

“I just played my 100 percent because there was nothing to lose. Before coming here, I was playing well. When I beat my compatriot (RMV Gurusaidutt) in the first round, I felt confident because it’s always tough to beat a player who knows you well. I just wanted to win each round that I played. As I got close to a second game win, I just told myself to focus on the next point, since I have lost a few matches while leading. Today’s my coach’s (Pullela Gopichand) birthday, so this title is a gift to him.”

Gift aside, this is Srikanth’s moment of truth. The moment when he realises that he isn’t there to just make up the numbers, he can compete with the best and he can win. A bacterial infection in his brain in June made this a difficult year for the Indian but this win over Dan will make sure that he remembers it for very different… very memorable reasons.

But whether this moment is the point that he uses to permanently step up into the limelight or it is just a one-off is completely down to the man himself. In a sense, this is where the dream truly begins for him. Kidambi Srikanth, arise… the world awaits.