Kidambi Srikanth said he was challenging himself on the way to his stunning Australian Superseries triumph on Sunday and put his victory down to “enjoying the match”.

The triumph in Sydney was Srikanth’s second in two weeks after he won the Indonesia Open last week. The world No 11 clinched his fourth Super Series with an incredible 22-20, 21-16 win over reigning Olympic and world champion Chen Long on Sunday. The win, his first over the Chinese player in six meetings, capped off a brilliant run of results for Srikanth who became the first Indian to reach the final of three consecutive Superseries events.

“I was not challenging him; I was challenging myself, about how long I can last,” said the 24-year-old to the Badminton World Federation.

Talking about his gameplan in the final, Srikanth added, “It’s just that I was not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton during my break last year and wanted to enjoy the match. These conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match. In all the breaks today I had the advantage, (coach) Mulyo told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match.”

His opponent Olympic champion Chen Long didn’t have a great match and put it down to his physical health.

“As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have had gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, so I haven’t been at my best physical condition,” said Chen. “But since I made the final I wanted to continue to play as well as I could.”

Physio C Kiran in particular has played an important role in Srikanth’s success, refusing to let him go home and supervising his recovery after the stress fracture he suffered late last year.

According to a report in the The Indian Express. “He used his injury period to get physically stronger in fact. What takes 6-8 weeks to come out from, in his case took 3 months,” Kiran told the paper.

The physio also spoke about how Srikanth was focused on his training and taking one match at a time. “Warm-ups, matches, recovery sessions and evening recovery is all planned so that he’s kept busy and doesn’t over-think – not about the last match and not too much about the next one.”

Meanwhile, Srikanth’s consistent show is bringing in the sponsors. After the Badminton Association of India had announced a cash award of five lakh to Srikanth, a user on Twitter pointed out that he didn’t have the same endorsements that his fellow players did. To which businessman Anand Mahindra replied that he would “personally” hand over a TUV300 car to Srikanth.

(Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that it was Srikanth Kidambi who was suffering from diarrhoea. That has been corrected)