Leander Paes is just three shy of completing a century of Grand Slam appearances but is now unsure whether uncertainty caused by coronavirus pandemic will allow him to complete the coveted milestone or for that matter compete at the next year's Tokyo Olympics. Paes had announced that 2020 would be his last season as a professional player but his plan to bid adieu on a high with a record eight appearance at the Olympics, was stalled by the COVID-19 outbreak, which has wrecked the sporting calendar around the world.
Paralympic gold-winners Avani Lekhara, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal were also given the Khel Ratna at a dazzling awards ceremony on Saturday.
India's campaign at the China Open Super Series Table Tennis ended after Neha Aggarwal lost to Viktoria Pavlovich 0-4 in the women's singles in Changchun, on Friday.
Neeraj Chopra's Tokyo Olympics javelin and Lovlina Borgohain's boxing gloves hogged the limelight on day two of the third edition of the e-auction of gifts presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
The boxers say they are seeing a focus on the players and their needs for the first time in years
'He's so important for our game, one of the greatest legends of tennis in the history of the game.'
The contingent comprises 277 men and 247 women athletes. In the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, the Indian contingent featured 541 athletes across 28 disciplines.
India endured another disappointing day in table tennis competitions at the Asian Games with only the men's doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha progressing to the pre-quarters stage at the Guangzhou Gymnasium in Guangzhou on Tuesday.
Sathiyan rose four spots to be placed 24th in the latest ITTF rankings, following his impressive sixth place finish in the Asia Cup in Yokohama earlier this month. Last week, he was the sole Indian to reach the round of 32 in the World Championships in Hungary.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha and actor Parineeti Chopra tied the knot on September 24 in Udaipur.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal was among three Indians who qualified for the men's singles quarter-finals, even as the Indian women's challenge in the individual events ended in the Commonwealth Games Table Tennis competition on Monday. Besides Sharath, A Amalraj and Soumyadeep Roy also entered the last-eight stage.
After being handed out easy draws, Indian paddlers are brimming with confidence ahead of the table tennis team event of the Commonwealth Games starting in New Delhi on Monday.
Two more Australian athletes have pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in India citing security and health concerns, adding to the growing list of withdrawals from next month's showpiece event.
Hoping for an improved performance in next month's table tennis World Championships in Rotterdam, Indian paddlers will undergo a 21-day training camp in China from April 16 to May 6.
India's national table tennis coach Massimo Constantini expects his wards to do well in next month's Asian Championship in Lucknow to boost their confidence ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games.
India's Ankita Das fought valiantly and stretched World No 10 China's Ruochen Gu to six games before losing in the quarter-finals of the Volkswagen World Junior Table Tennis Championships, in Bahrain on Sunday.
Neeraj Chopra launches outreach programme, interacts with students from 75 schools
India cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu were on Monday recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the awards selection committee.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal's impressive form helped Indian men register their second successive victory, while their women counterparts continued their dismal performance in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow on Monday.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, on Thursday, September 28.
Indian Olympic Association's acting president Anil Khanna called it a 'gender-neutral contingent' with 108 men and 107 women being part of the touring party.
Indian paddlers endured a mixed day in individual Table Tennis events of the Asian Games with only Kumaresan Shamini making it to the second round of the mixed and women's singles event in Guangzhou on Monday.
Indian paddlers got off to a spectacular start in the World Table Tennis Championship as all six, including new women's national champion Kumaresan Shamini, spanked their respective opponents 4-0 in their opening matches of the qualifying rounds in Yokohama, Japan, on Tuesday.
India celebrated a rare moment of success in international table tennis as Soumyajit Ghosh clinched the Under-21 men's title while Manika Batra bagged the Under-21 women's trophy at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open at Santos.
With the gold medal eluding them in the team event, Indian paddlers, led by defending champion Achanta Sharath Kamal, will be eyeing to better their performance in the individual competitions of the Commonwealth Games which begins in New Delhi on Monday.
Both the men's and women's table tennis teams of India were on Saturday handed easy draws for the Commonwealth Games commencing in New Delhi on Sunday.
Prajnesh is now ranked 102 in the men's singles rankings with a jump of seven places while Ankita leapfrogged 35 places to a career-high 168 in the women's singles.
Young Soumyajit Ghosh's maiden appearance at the Olympics was a memorable one as he advanced to the second round of the table tennis event after Ankita Das bowed out on Saturday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei in the first round and bowed out of the World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The world No 54 lost 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 7-11, 9-11.
Chinese paddlers reasserted continental supremacy on Friday by defending both the men's and women's team titles on the fourth day of the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships while Indian men finished a distant seventh in the Champions Division.
With a three-stage plan in place, Indian paddlers would be fully prepared for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year, feels national coach Bhawani Mukherjee.
Following the criticism of the newly-introduced two-tier format for team events at the ongoing Asian Championships, Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) has decided to review the new system.
Seventeen-year-old Harmeet Desai, of Gujarat clinched the Joola Austria Junior and Cadet Open title at Linz, Austria beating compatriot Soumyajit Ghosh in a hard-fought five-game match.
Renowned Italian coach Massimo Constantini will groom Indian paddlers for the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled in the capital.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal notched up the biggest title of his career when he clinched the US Open Table Tennis Championships crown, beating Keineth Thomas of Slovakia at Michigan.
The Indian men maintained their winning spree despite their spearhead Achanta Sharath Kamal losing a tie, while the women suffered their third successive defeat in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow on Tuesday. India defeated Argentina 3-1 to register their third win on the trot in the men's section while their women, after losing to Denmark and Malaysia earlier, went down to group leaders Turkey 1-3.
Sharath Kamal, India's finest ever table tennis player, says he might have played the best match of his almost two-decade career despite ending on the wrong side of the result against the mighty Ma Long at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Subajit Saha caused yet another upset by beating world number 38 Li Hu of Singapore 4-1 to finish ninth in the second stage of the Asia Cup Table Tennis Championships in Guangzhou.
Modi on Saturday hosted the Indian contingent at his residence to felicitate the players in New Delhi.
