Kidambi Srikanth: How a last-minute visa ended in a worlds silver | Badminton News – Times of India

The Kidambi Srikanth world championships fairy tale at Huelva would never have happened. The first Indian man to win a silver at the World Championships almost missed the chance of playing the tournament, giving up hope after his visa application to Spain was delayed.
Upon completing his assignment in Indonesia, Srikanth was on schedule for the World championships, but the former world No.1 did not get his visa on time. All hope seemed lost until the document arrived at the last minute. To think, a delayed visa would have cost India its first men’s silver in the world championship.

“I almost lost hope. It was a big relief when I got the visa on Thursday evening (Dec 16) as late as 5 or 6 pm. I am just happy to come here and play another tournament this year. I played really well throughout the week. It could have been good had I won today,” Srikanth said after clinching the silver.
Though he lost the final, Srikanth was quick to look at the positives. “It’s been a great week, even today I had my chances in both the sets,” he said, “I had a healthy lead in the first set and even in the second set, I led 18-16 at one stage. I think I was not able to finish the match today. Loh played really well. There are a lot of things to learn from today. I will definitely work on them and get better for the next tournaments,” said Srikanth.

Asked how frustrating it was to make mistakes at crucial points, Srikanth said, “Going into the match again, I really wanted to be very positive and not make any mistakes. But this really happens, you know, ‘One has to win and one has to lose’. I tried to stay in the match. It really worked in the second set, but I was not able to finish it off.”
Lauding his opponent, Srikanth said, “The last time I played him was four years back. Four years is a very long time. He matured as a player and his game improved a lot. He is playing exceptionally well in the last few months.”
Happy with his performance this year, Srikanth said he would like to continue to work hard. “Overall, I am happy. I won a few and lost a few. Reaching the final of a big event, I am quite happy as I worked very hard for this. Next year is very important as we will be playing the Commonwealth Games and many big tournaments are on the calendar. We also have the Asian Games. I want to prepare well for all these events,” Srikant said.
Thanking his fans, Srikanth said, “I definitely would like to thank everyone back home. I got so many good wishes from so many people. I would like to thank all of them”.