India's best is yet to come: Gopichand

HYDERABAD: After a dream run in 2014, Indian shuttlers will begin the new season with the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Kuching on Tuesday.
Expectations are high after the Indians' superb showing last year. A look back will put things in perspective.
While Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu continued their good work in women's singles, the performance of men in the singles was a revelation in 2014.
The spectacular rise of Kidambi Srikanth, who won the China Open defeating Lin Dan in the final, the golden moment of Parupalli Kashyap, who claimed the men's singles crown in Commonwealth Games after a gap of 32 years, and the titles won by players like HS Prannoy, Saurabh Varma, Ajay Jayaram etc., all gave a huge lift to Indian badminton.The team bronze medal won at the Uber Cup and Asian Games added glitter to what was undoubtedly the golden year of Indian badminton.
Pullela Gopichand, the man who is credited with this fantastic show, promises even more for the Indian fans in 2015. "All this success is just the result of our hard work. I have been saying since 2011 that some big performances from the men will come and it happened last year. We want to do better this year," he said. Asked if last year was his best, he said, "I will not rate it that way. It's a challenge to improve upon the performance of last year. However, I don't think it will be difficult." Rating Srikanth's China Open triumph as his best moment last year, Gopi said: "Beating Lin Dan in China is the dream of every shuttler. Frankly, I didn't expect Srikanth to do that," said Gopi, the only other Indian to have beaten Super Dan.
Srikanth pulls out: World No.4 Kidambi Srikanth has pulled out of the Malaysia Masters, leaving it to his senior Kashyap to lead the Indian challenge in men's singles. Kashyap has a great chance of winning the title. With the withdrawal of top seed and world champion Carolina Marin, second seed PV Sindhu is the favourite to win title in women's singles.