Australian Open Superseries champion Kidambi Srikanth fought gastroenteritis

Sydney: Despite being ill upon arriving in Sydney, Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has overcome all the odds to defeat some of the toughest opponents and be crowned the Australian Open Super Series champion.

Srikanth defeated two-time All England champions Chen Long of China, on Sunday. The world no 11 men’s singles shuttler overcame his Chinese opponent 22-20, 21-16, in a 45-minute match, winning his second successive super series title.

After the match however, Srikanth revealed that all was not well with the ace Indian men’s singles shuttler after he arrived in Australia fresh from victory at the Indonesia Open Super Series, in Jakarta.

"As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have gastroenteritis and have had diarrhoea, so I have not been at my best physical condition,” Srikanth said to PTI. “But since I made the final I wanted to continue to play as well as I could.”

The former world no 3, who has had to sit out long parts of last season due to injury, went on to say that his desire to play more competitive badminton has helped him progress to the final of three consecutive super series tournaments – in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia.

"It's just that I'm not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton and wanted to enjoy the match. It's like it happened because I missed that period of competitive badminton. It's like I wanted to hang in and play as many matches as possible," he added.

Srikanth has been on good form since playing the 2017 Sudirman Cup, in Australia, and has attributed his successful comeback from injury to physio Dr Kiran Challagundla.

"I'm playing better after the Sudirman Cup. I should thank my physio for keeping me fit for these two tournaments. It was tough for me on Tuesday and Wednesday," he said.