Sen will now face the winner of the other quarter-final match between Olympic champion and top seed Viktor Axelsen and India's Kidambi Srikanth on Saturday.
The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy clarified that it played no role in Saina Nehwal shifting from the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad to Bengaluru to train under Vimal Kumar ahead of the Rio Olympics, saying the move was the "sole decision" of the ace shuttler.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Indian women shuttlers advanced to the Badminton Asia Team Championship quarter-finals despite a 1-4 loss to Japan in which P V Sindhu notched the country's only win Alor Setar, Malaysia, on Thursday.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap emerged as the lone survivor at the Japan Open in an otherwise disappointing day for India as top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth made an early exit from the Super Series tournament in Tokyo, on Thursday.
In-form PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to break new grounds as they spearhead India's charge for an elusive gold at the 18th Asian Games badminton event which begins with the team competitions, in Jakarta, on Sunday.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
In other India-related news, Manish Kaurav (KL3 men 200m) and Manjeet Singh (VL2 men 200m) made it to the finals of their respective events for the first time in the history of the tournament.
Former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar reckons a tough journey awaits Saina Nehwal, who will need to target specific tournaments to prolong her career after the COVID-19 pandemic shattered her Tokyo Olympics dreams.
Top Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss to seventh seeded English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 17-21, 14-21 in a last-8 match.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Friday recommended Kidambi Srikanth for the Khel Ratna award after the top Indian shuttler apologised for pulling out of a tournament midway and show-caused his teammate H S Prannoy for slamming the federation after not being nominated for the Arjuna honour.
'Saina and Sindhu are top contenders, but they will have to beat players who are playing solid badminton at this juncture.'
Unnati won 21-18, 21-11 to be crowned the Odisha Open champion for the first time.
India's H S Prannoy faced stiff resistance before prevailing against local hero Daren Liew to advance to the second round of the Malaysia Open, in Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday.
Spearheading India's challenge at the World Championships, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu says she is in good form and vowed to better the colour of her past two bronze medals.
The Indian men's and women's badminton teams crashed out of the Thomas and Uber Cup finals after suffering identical 0-3 defeats to Indonesia and China respectively in the quarter-finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday. India's top shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Saina Nehwal gave a scare to higher-ranked opponents Taufik Hidayat and Yihan Wang before eventually going down 12-21, 21-10, 17-21 and 21-14, 11-21, 18-21 respectively.
Denmark's Mathias Boe is extremely annoyed. And in his anger this shuttler from Denmark has vowed to not visit India after appearing in Thomas Cup next year.
Top Indian shuttlers, including world champion P V Sindhu, will be able to hit the courts from July 1 if the Telangana government allows the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to organise a national camp in Hyderabad. With COVID-19 cases surging in Hyderabad, the Telangana government, as a precautionary measure, extended the lockdown till June 30 but it meant the resumption of the sport got further delayed for the top players in the state.
The NITI Aayog has big plans for Indian sport.
Top seed Saina Nehwal and her compatriot B Sai Praneeth crashed out of their respective quarter-final matches to draw curtains on India's challenge at the the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Friday.
As the curtains come down at the Tokyo Olympics, here's a glance at the medallists and those who came within touching distance of glory.
V K Vismaya stunned her fancied opponents, M R Poovamma and Hima Das, to win the gold medal in the women's 400m race at the Indian Grand Prix-3, in Sangrur, on Saturday.
Seventh seeded Indians Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto clinched the mixed doubles title with a straight-games' win over compatriots T Hema Nagendra Babu and Srivedya Gurazada.
As many as five singles players, including Aditi Mutatkar and Ajay Jayaram, and two doubles pairs, reached the pre-quarter-finals as India had a resounding day at the Vietnam Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Ho Chih Minh City on Wednesday.
Top seeds Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand cruised to the pre-quarterfinals even as three other top Indian shuttlers bite the dust at the India Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Chennai on Wednesday.
Buoyed by the historic para-badminton World Championships gold, Manasi Joshi has now turned her eyes on making the cut for next year's Paralympics. She will focus on mixed doubles, as SL3 category is not part of the Tokyo Games.
India's campaign in the Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament ended on Saturday as Parupalli Kashyap conceded a one game advantage to go down to Hong Kong's Hu Yun in the semifinals of the men's singles.
Srikanth credits Gopichand for all recent success - the two back-to-back Super Series titles and says, 'My focus is on World Championships, not thinking of rankings'
World champion P V Sindhu remains India's best Olympic medal prospect but she has to give more attention to her recovery process between matches to achieve the feat at the Tokyo Olympic Games, said former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar.
Kidambi Srikkanth is a big fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and he was in for a pleasant surprise when he received a cricket bat
Prannoy took to Twitter to express his displeasure.
Lakshya Sen's stunning win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie went in vain as the Indian men's badminton team went down fighting 2-3 to two-time defending champions Indonesia in the semi-finals to settle for a bronze at the Asia Team Championships in Manila on Saturday.
Far from mourning the end of her brief reign as the world number one, shuttler Saina Nehwal is happy that she at least made it to where no other non-Chinese could reach in the last four years.
'Compared to three or four years back, I have cut down on my time as an active chess player. I have long aspired to come into the chess administration and this opportunity as the deputy president will be a huge learning curve for me'.
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad will begin her campaign against China's Li Xuerui, a former Olympic gold medallist and World No 1.
With five titles under his belt, Lakshya Sen was racing towards the top echelons of international badminton before his stunning run was halted by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought all sporting action to a halt across the world. With the world in lockdown to contain the deadly disease, Lakshya too is enduring the uncertain times within the confines of his apartment, near the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru.
Kidambi Srikanth, the top-ranking male Indian shuttler who put up an impressive performance in the Badminton Asia Team Championships here, says he aims to achieve a medal in the coming Rio Olympics. "As early as possible, but I am not in a hurry to do that (achieve number one rank in world rankings). It's just that I need to perform consistently. "Then, I will automatically get that. I don't want to become number one (immediately). I want to perform really very well. That's when I can be there (at the top)," the 23-year-old shuttler told PTI. Srikanth, who is currently ranked nine in the world, led the Indian team to semi finals of the Badminton Asia Team Championships. He was the only one to win a match in the five-match tie in the semi finals against Indonesia on Saturday. Srikanth remained unbeaten in the tournament. He said he doesn't think much about expectations.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar participated in a question and answer session with his fans.
Madhya Pradesh's Aditya Joshi has become the first male junior badminton player from India to be ranked world No 1. Harshal Dani is another Indian who, at No 8, figures in the top ten of the junior rankings.
'Jaan hai to jahaan hai' 'It's a good decision because everyone is disturbed. Athletes' health is paramount'
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