Dubai: India has their best chance yet of prising out the men and women’s singles titles with Kidambi Srikanth and Pusarla V. Sindhu arriving in Dubai on a high for the Dubai World Superseries Finals next week.
Only the top eight-ranked players in the Destination Dubai Rankings qualify for the season-ending event, which will be held for the last time at the Hamdan Sports Complex from December 13-17.
With some exceptional results against their names, Srikanth and Sindhu will arrive in Dubai full of confidence after also being named last week as Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year at the Indian Sports Honours.
Srikanth has been the more consistent of the two while becoming the only Indian and only the fourth player to have won four Superseries titles in a year, while Sindhu won two titles and the silver medal at the World Championships.
Srikanth posted early season victories in the BCA Indonesian Open and the Crown Group Australian Open, and had hoped to carry this form into the World Championships in Glasgow in August. Disappointingly, though, he was eliminated in the quarter-finals by South Korea’s Son Won Ho.
Srikanth overcame the setback and rallied to take first the Danisa Denmark Open and then the Yonex French Open, his performances equalling the record of four titles in one season held by Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan and Chen Long.
The Indian was also a runner-up in the OUE Singapore Open, and made it to the quarter-finals in two other events. His efforts saw him reach a career high world ranking of 2 in November, and finish second in the Destination Dubai Rankings, just behind Son Won Ho.
Despite not winning a title Son had a consistently good season and just managed to overtake Srikanth on the pointscore in the last event.
Meanwhile, India’s new golden girl Sindhu got her season off to a good start, winning her home title, the Yonex Sunrise India Open, by defeating her rival Carolina Marin in a rematch of the epic Olympic final, which saw Marin take the gold.
Sindhu went on to take her second major career silver medal at the World Championships in Glasgow, where she went down to Nozomi Okuhara in the final, despite holding two match points. The 22-year-old returned to winning form in the Victor Korea Open in September, before finishing runner-up to defending champion Tai Tzu Ying in the final qualification event, the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong open in November.
But neither Srikanth nor Sindhu will have an easy run to the finals, with Srikanth up against Olympic champion Chen Long, as well as legend Lee Chong Wei and World champion and Dubai defending champion Victor Axelsen in a star-studded field.
Sindhu’s run may be a little easier with the withdrawal through injury of the two players who have denied her gold at the Olympics and World Championships — Marin and Okuhara.
But she will still have to contend with defending champion and world No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, who collected a staggering five Superseries titles this year, as well as Japan’s powerhouse Akane Yamaguchi and Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon.