2011 In the
2011 Commonwealth Youth Games in the
Isle of Man, Kidambi won the bronze medal in men's doubles and silver in mixed doubles. He also emerged as the winner in the singles and doubles category at the All India Junior International Badminton Championship held in
Pune.
2012 In 2012, Kidambi overcame the then Junior World Champion
Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia in the Maldives International Challenge to claim the men's singles title.
2013 In the
Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold event, Kidambi won the men's singles title, beating then world number eight and local favorite
Boonsak Ponsana in straight games. In the same year, Kidambi beat reigning champion and Olympian
Parupalli Kashyap in the All India Senior National Championships in
Delhi to claim his first senior national title. He was also part of the
Awadhe Warriors team that finished second in the
Indian Badminton League, 2013.
2014 Kidambi finished runner up at the 2014
India Open Grand Prix Gold event in
Lucknow and was a quarterfinalist in the 2014
Malaysian Open. He was part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semi-finals of the
mixed team event at the
Commonwealth Games 2014 in
Glasgow. He also reached the quarter-finals of the
men's singles event in the same tournament. In November, he created a major upset in the final of the
2014 China Open Super Series Premier by beating 5-time World Champion and 2-time Olympic Champion
Lin Dan in straight games (21–19, 21–17), thus becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier men's title. He then reached the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open Super Series after beating Taiwan's
Chou Tien-chen in an early round. He lost to
Chen Long of China in three games in the semi-finals. With those wins, he was qualified for the World Superseries Finals. He defeated
Kento Momota (15–21, 21–16, 21–10) and
Tommy Sugiarto (21–18, 21–13) in the group stage to reach the semi-final of the prestigious
BWF Super Series Masters Finals, where he lost again to
Chen Long of China.
2015 Kidambi became the first Indian man to win gold at the
2015 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold by defeating
Viktor Axelsen 21–15, 12–21, 21–14. During the same year, he also won the
India Open Super Series title by defeating
Viktor Axelsen in the final.
2016 Kidambi reached the semifinal in the
Malaysia Masters, where he lost to
Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia in January. The following week, he won the
Syed Modi International Badminton Championships Grand Prix Gold title, defeating
Huang Yuxiang 21–13, 14–21, 21–14 in the final. At the
2016 South Asian Games, he won two gold medals, in men's team and men's singles, defeating
Prannoy Kumar in the singles final. At the
2016 Badminton Asia Team Championship, although his team lost in the semifinal, he remained undefeated. In the
2016 Rio Olympics, the World No. 11 Kidambi entered the Round of 16 of the
men's singles by beating
Lino Muñoz and
Henri Hurskainen. He went on to beat World No. 5
Jan Ø. Jørgensen 21–19, 21–19 to reach the quarterfinals, but was defeated by
Lin Dan by a score of 6–21, 21–11, and 18–21.
2017 Kidambi and Sai Praneeth created history when they became the first ever Indian pair to enter the finals of a ranking event in Badminton. Both hailing from Hyderabad and being coached by Pullela Gopichand, it was Sai Praneeth who prevailed 17–21, 21–17, 21–12 eventually to clinch the
Singapore Super Series title. Kidambi won the
Indonesia Super Series beating Japan's
Kazumasa Sakai 21–11, 21–19, thereby becoming the first ever Indian male player to do so. He went on to win the
Australian Super Series beating China's
Chen Long 22–20, 21–16 in the final, setting an Indian record for entering three consecutive Super Series Finals. At the
World Championships, he was defeated in the quarter-final by South Korea's
Son Wan-Ho in straight games. At the next Super Series, the
Denmark, he won the title defeating
Lee Hyun-il of Korea 21–10, 21–5 in the final. Following his good run, Kidambi became the fourth player ever to win four Super Series titles in a year, after he won the
French Super Series that followed, defeating Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21–14, 21–13 in the final. In the process, he equalled the record held by
Lee Chong Wei,
Lin Dan, and
Chen Long. Following the victory, he reached his career-best world
ranking of 2.
2018 Kidambi started 2018 at the
India Open as the second seed. He was defeated in the second round by
Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin who had qualified from the qualifiers. He also lost in the second round at the
All England Open to Chinese player
Huang Yuxiang in three games. At the
Commonwealth Games in
Gold Coast, Kidambi was more successful, winning a gold in the mixed team event, and a silver in the singles event. He achieved the world number 1 ranking for a week during this period. Kidambi lost to
Liew Daren 18–21, 18–21 at the
world championships pre-quarters. Kidambi had a disappointing
2018 Asian Games where in
singles he lost in 1st round to
Wong Wing Ki 21–23, 19–21 and in the team event after defeating
Maldives 3–0 in the 1st round his team suffered a loss to
Indonesia in quarterfinals.
2019 Kidambi represented his country at the
South Asian Games in Nepal, and won the gold medal in the team event.
2021 In
2021, Kidambi reached the finals of
World championships becoming the first Indian male badminton player to do so. He lost the final to
Loh Kean Yew to win the silver medal.
2022 Kidambi was part of the Indian men's team for
Thomas Cup 2022. The team went on to win the Thomas Cup by beating Indonesia 3–0 in the final, with Kidambi winning his match against
Jonatan Christie. == Achievements ==