Kidambi Srikanth made India proud by becoming the World No 1 in badminton rankings as he surpassed Denmark’s badminton legend Viktor Axelsen. It was master blaster Sachin Tendulkar who predicted that Kidambi will be number 1. Kidambi Shrikant shared the memory of meeting Sachin Tendulkar on social media and thanked him for his words of encouragement.

Kidambi shared a picture of himself with the master blaster and captioned it, “I am honoured to meet you sir. I still remember in 2015 when you told me that I will become World No.1 and that made me work much harder. Thank you sir @sachin_rt for your kind words.”

The master blaster too replied to him and wrote, “Always wishing the best for you, @srikidambi. Your hard work, passion and dedication to your sport has got you here.. with many, many milestones to go. You deserve it!.”

Sachin Tendulkar too has been following Kidambi’s game closely. When the badminton star occupied the number 1 spot, Sachin hailed his effort on social media. He took to Twitter and congratulated him. He wrote, “Congratulations, @srikidambi on becoming the World No.1 Badminton player. Proud moment for all Indians. Keep Rising, Keep shining.”

However, Kidambi’ joy was short lived as he dropped by four places just four days after his defeat to the Malaysian veteran Lee Chon Wei.  India’s female shuttles remain at the same position. PV Sindhu is at number 2 and Saina Nehwal on 12 of the Badminton World Federation ranking.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 22, 2018 09:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).