Brimming with confidence, India will again look to punch above their weight when they run into 14-time winners Indonesia in the final of Thomas Cup in Bangkok on Sunday, seeking to create history one more time.
The world No. 6 Indian duo will next face Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede later on Friday.
The 15-year-old from Hyderabad climbed 10 places in the latest International Badminton Federation rankings and maintained her status as India's top women's shuttler.
Here's a look at Indian athletes' performance on Monday, Day 4 of the Games.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, who earned India its first badminton medal at the Olympics winning a bronze at London Games, on Thursday regained her fourth position in women's world rankings released.
For India to send two shuttlers in Tokyo Olympics women's singles, both of them will have to be inside top 16 in the world rankings which will be released after the end of qualification period, on April 30, 2020.
H S Prannoy signed off with a bronze -- India's first medal in men's singles at the Asian Games in 41 years,.
'In the last few months, we have been pushing ourselves and training hard. Even in the pandemic, we continued to train under the guidance of Gaurav Khanna sir and never deterred from our focus.'
'When we are playing at our best, it's very difficult to beat us.'
Sindhu, Sen look to regain lost touch in Canada Open
Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals but a heartbreak was in store for P V Sindhu, who suffered a shock defeat to Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round of the $120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Lucknow, on Thursday.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag won 21-17, 21-11.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will lose her world No. 1 ranking after her gallant fight against Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the semi-finals ended in heartbreak at the $500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament.
Early exits at Japan Open and Denmark Open proved costly for ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal as she lost her World No.1 crown to All England and World champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal made impressive starts at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament, advancing to the second round of men's and women's singles respectively with contrasting victories in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Sankar's father Subramanian encouraged him to drop out of the schooling system at an early age and pushed him to play in the upper age groups and senior circuits.
The top Indian players, including Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth have failed to lift the prestigious trophy
Kidambi Srikanth entered the final of the $120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton championship after he got the better of compatriot Ajay Jayaram in an all-India last-four clash in Basel on Saturday.
None of the other three quarters boast of such a strong star cast but there would be a few mouth-watering opening round clashes to look forward to.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu scored contrasting victories to enter the third round of the women's singles at the World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou on Wednesday.
In one of the biggest upsets for the India, medal hope Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Rio Games after suffering an straight-game loss upset against lower-ranked Maria Ulitina of Ukraine in her second Group G match at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.
Satwik and Chirag, ranked sixth in the world, will face the winner of the other semi-final between Indonesia's Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan and second seeds Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh of Malaysia in their maiden World Tour Super 1000 final.
Confident about their preparation for the upcoming World Championships, India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand said the home shuttlers have the best chance of winning multiple medals at the prestigious tournament next month.
Manjunath will play Taipei's Yu Jen, who was lucky to progress after fifth seed Rasmus Gemke retired in the second game after pocketing the first.
Srikanth eyes elusive Asian Games medal, hopes to be third time lucky
Newly-appointed Delhi Badminton Association president Mohammad Azharuddin feels Badminton Association of India has declared DBA a defunct body based on "lame excuses" and said the city's shuttlers would be affected because of federation politics.
'We told them we are ready to conduct the India Open in December or January but it all depends on how this global health crisis comes under control and if we get the government approval'
The Indian kabaddi contingent made an impressive start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games with the women's team mauling Japan and the men's side beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Jakarta on Sunday.
Later in the day, the new women's doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 13-21, 18-21 to Japan's Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the quarter-finals, bringing down the curtain on India's campaign.
A year ago, following the World Championships, Sen underwent nasal surgery to treat a deviated septum. What followed was an extended recovery process that took eight months.
World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen and men's doubles combination of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy registered contrasting victories to reach their first Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2022 final, while PV Sindhu was knocked out, in New Delhi on Saturday.
Badminton's Tokyo rankings frozen as BWF rules out any more qualifying tournaments.
Saina Nehwal, a bronze medallist in 2012 London Olympics, dropped a place to be at ninth position, while P V Sindhu retained her 11th spot in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings issued on Thursday.
Ajay Jayaram got off to a rousing start in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships, shocking higher-ranked Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, in Guangzhou, China, on Monday. The 25-year-old Indian, ranked No 24, beat the world No 12 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 in 64 minutes, at the Tianhe Indoor stadium.
Saina Nehwal's chances of defending her title at the Commonwealth Games looks bleak as she has decided to skip the selection trials for the upcoming multi-sport events.
India's star shuttler H S Prannoy doesn't want to think about Paris right now and is instead focussing on "short-term targets" like breaking into the world's top three.
All these male politicians are unlikely to risk their sinecures to speak up in support of a bunch of women wrestlers who have chosen to challenge a politician who appears to have the ruling regime in a stranglehold, points out Kanika Datta.
The 28-year-old from Hyderabad, a winner of the Indonesia Masters, semi-finalist at Malaysia Masters and quarter-finalist at the All England Championship, saw US$36,825 added to her career earnings.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances