He stunned world number 5 Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen twice in the ongoing Indian Badminton League (IBL) but Hyderabad Hotshots men's singles player Ajay Jayaram today said he needs to work on his consistency to reach his target of breaking into the top 15 this year.
"I have beaten the world number five twice here and even in the recent past I have beaten a few top 10 players. Definitely, this will boost my confidence quite a lot," Ajay, who is currently ranked 24 in the world, told reporters here.
"I have to change the giant killer kind of tag by consistently beating them in the coming tournaments and playing the quarters and semis consistently. That is the positive I take from this tournament. I aim to break into the top 15 by the end of this year," he added.
Parupalli Kashyap is the top ranked Indian player with a world ranking of 14.
The 25-year-old Ajay is now looking at the Super Series tournaments in China and Japan after the IBL concludes tomorrow but said he doesn't want to think too far ahead at next year's Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
"After this I go to China and Japan for the super series. At the moment I have planned according to that. At the moment I am just looking to play every tournament, I enter, do well and get a good performance everywhere," said Ajay, who is playing for Hyderabad Hotshots in the IBL.
Hyderabad Hotshots take on Awadhe Warriors tomorrow in the finals and he said it would be an interesting game as both the teams have done well in the league stage.
"I am quite excited. Both Awadhe Warriors and Hyderabad have had a pretty good run. Both have won many of their matches convincingly so, I think it will be an interesting tie tomorrow and I am definitely looking forward to it," he said.
The Mumbaikar had a light training session today and he said he had suffered a thigh injury earlier and didn't want to exert himself too much.
