India's rising shuttler Sourabh Verma is hoping to reap the rewards of undergoing rigorous training sessions with a good show at the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold starting in Bangkok next week.
The world number 37 from Madhya Pradesh has put in a lot of effort in the last one month after the India Open and said he is looking at good results in Thailand, Indonesia Super Series and Singapore Open.
"I have been training hard for the last one month. After the India Open I got lot of time to get back to training and I made good use of it by working on my overall strokes," said Sourabh, who would be leaving for Bangkok tonight.
"Last year I played too many tournaments. It becomes difficult because every week you have two tournaments and one also have to keep a watch on the ranking to qualify for big events such as World championship. Too many tournaments affects performance. But I am happy I could get back to training after a year.
"This year my performance has not been too bad. I played Malaysia, then two all India ranking events, I won one and reached the semifinals of the other event. Then I reached the prequarters of All England and in India Open also I played the prequarters," he added.
Sourabh, seeded eighth, will be playing a qualifier in the opening round but the 20-year-old doesn't have any target.
"I am looking to be more consistent and improve. I am not looking at any particular result, I haven't set any target. Just want to take it as it comes," he added.
Another rising shuttler K Srikanth, seeded 13th in Thailand, said he is targeting the quarterfinals.
"This is the first year in international circuit and I am just enjoying myself playing in the tournaments. It has been a good experience so far. I beat Jan Jorgensen in India Open. It was a good win in front of the home crowd," Srikanth said.
"I will be playing all the three tournaments in June. I played in Malaysia Grand Prix Gold in May. Hopefully it will be a good outing in June. I hope to reach the quarterfinals."
World number 28 Ajay Jayaram will be India's top shuttler spearheading the challenge in the Thailand Open, besides Anand Pawar in the men's singles competition.
Among others, Sameer Verma, B Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy will be the other male shuttlers.
