Memories of a path-breaking gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games are still fresh in her mind as Saina Nehwal embarks on a quest to regain the title at the Gold Coast Games starting next week.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Saina Nehwal moved a step closer to defending her Indonesian Open Super Series title, reaching the semi-finals with a straight games' victory over Denmark's eighth seed Tine Baun, in Jakarta, on Friday. The fourth seed won 21-19, 21-19 in 37 minutes.
Badminton ace Saina Nehwal, whose phenomenal rise was highlighted by three top-flight international titles recently, was on Sunday conferred the coveted Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi.
Saina Nehwal staved off the challenge from Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei in an edge-of-the-seat second round match to enter the quarter-final of the Malaysian Super Series in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal dished out a dominating performance to post a straight-game win over two-time All England Champion Shixian Wang of China and start her campaign on a positive note at the season-ending BWF World Super Series badminton final in Dubai.
Newly-crowned China Open champion P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal entered the quarterfinals of the women's singles competition at the Hong Kong Open Super Series tournament on a fruitful day for Indian shuttlers in Kowloon. Sindhu, who bagged her maiden Super Series Premier title last week at the China Open just months after winning the silver at Rio Olympics, trounced Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching 21-10 21-14, while Saina dished out a gruelling performance against Japan's Sayaka Sato to edge prevail 21-18 9-21 21-16.
Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu will be the cynosure of all eyes when the seventh India Super Series badminton tournament gets underway with the qualifiers in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap have urged badminton's governing body to reconsider its decision not to extend the qualification period for the Tokyo Games despite several events being cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus.
Reader Madhava K spotted Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal at Copenhagen airport.
The Indian challenge ended in the Korea Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament after Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal suffered a stunning quarter-final defeat to China's Li Han in Seoul on Friday. The third-seeded Indian ace was beaten 14-21, 21-15, 12-21 in 59 minutes.
India's shuttlers enjoyed a mixed day at the Australian Open Super Series as Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth progressed to the second round but four others were knocked out in the first round itself, in Sydney, on Wednesday.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal was the lone Indian survivor at the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier after P V Sindhu suffered a close defeat in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition in Fuzhou on Thursday.
Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal says the inclusion of former Olympic champion and her childhood hero Taufik Hidayat in her team Hyderabad Hotshots will serve as a moral booster in the upcoming Indian Badminton League.
Saina Nehwal's semi-final outing in the China Masters Super Series turned out to be a lopsided affair as the ace Indian shuttler crashed out of the event after suffering a straight-game defeat at hands of her new nemesis Zhou Mi in Changzhou on Saturday.
Saina Nehwal can heave a sigh of relief after her father Harvir Singh's accreditation issue was resolved
P V Sindhu cemented her position as a dominant force on the world stage with an Olympic silver medal while Saina Nehwal continued to battle with injuries in a year, which saw Indian badminton take giant strides at the global platform. It turned out to be a watershed year for Sindhu, who reached the upper echelons of world badminton with a silver medal at Rio Games -- an achievement also for her mentor and chief coach Pullela Gopichand, who became the only Indian coach to produce two Olympic medallists. On the other hand, for the first part of the year, it was Saina's battle with injuries which dominated the headlines even though she was considered to be the best bet for India at Rio. The Indian ace fought against time to recover from an Achilles tendons and went on to win the Australian Super Series.
Badminton ace Saina Nehwal topped her group to march into the women's singles semi-finals while Kidambi Srikanth reached the last four stage despite losing his last men's singles round robin match at the BWF World Super Series Finals in Dubai on Friday.
Two-time champion Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy progressed to the quarter-finals after straight-game victories in the women's and men's singles respectively at the $ 120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Basel.
World No 1 shuttler Saina Nehwal presented the racquet with which she won a silver medal at the Badminton World Championships to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an advanced birthday present, on Wednesday.
Indian badminton star and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was Thursday ruled out along withParupalli Kashyap from the 12th South Asian Games due to injury concerns, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) informed the local organisers in Shillong. "We've received a communication from BAI stating that the entire badminton squad except for Saina and Kashyap is arriving on Friday afternoon," SAG (Shillong) joint CEO FR Kharkongor told PTI. Saina and Kashyap are two of the top badminton athletes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio. Jwala Gutta has been confirmed as the captain of the Indian team by BAI President Akhilesh Das Gupta.
Olympics Bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal failed to clinch back-to-back title as she suffered a shock straight-game defeat to Japanese Minatsu Mitani in the summit clash of the French Open Super Series in Paris on Sunday.
India's rising shuttler attributed her defeat in the final of the World Junior badminton tournament to exhaustion.\n
Title favourite and world number two Saina Mirza suffered a shock defeat at the hands of unseeded Yui Hashimoto of Japan in controversial circumstances to crash out of the Yonex Sunrise India Open Super Series in New Delhi.
Top seed Saina Nehwal breezed through her match as India's shuttlers had a successful outing in the individual badminton event at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday. World number three Saina thrashed Sarah Thomas of Wales 21-5, 21-9 to get closer to her first Commonwealth Games gold, while Melbourne bronze medallist Chetan Anand beat Nigeria's Ola Fagbemi 21-12, 21-6 in 21 minutes to stay on course to better his record at the sporting extravaganza.
The Indian ace beat Soratja Chansrisukot of Thailand at the Hong Open badminton championships.
Two-time defending champion Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Sunday. She was shocked by a lower-ranked Shixian Wang of China in the women's singles semi-final. The top seeded Indian ace fought hard before losing 11-21, 21-10, 9-21 to the fourth-seeded Chinese in a battle that lasted 50 minutes.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was on course for her third consecutive Swiss Open title as she stormed into the semi-finals of the Grand Prix Gold tournament after thrashing Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in Basel.
Parupalli Kashyap, who became the first Indian shuttler to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics Games, has said he draws inspiration from London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal. Kashyap, who received the Arjuna Award in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday, also said he is aiming to break into the top-15 of world badminton ranking by the end of this year.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal dished out yet another dominating performance, routing Japan's Eriko Hirose 21-9, 21-10 to storm into the final of the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament in Jakarta on Saturday. Saina thus earned a shot at her second successive Super Series title, having won the one in Singapore last week.
Nita Ambani, founder and chairperson, Reliance Foundation, was presented the Global Leadership Award by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum in New Delhi on Sunday, October 29, 2023.
H S Prannoy stunned the legendary Lin Dan of China while compatriot Sameer Verma pipped Rasmus Gemke of Denmark to advance to the second round of the Indonesia Open badminton event.
Saina Nehwal beat Ai Goto to become the first Indian woman to reach the final in a four-star event in badminton
On a high after clinching the Thailand Open title last week, Indian ace Saina Nehwal started her campaign at the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier with a thrilling three-game victory over Japan's Sayaka Sato in the women's singles competition in Jakarta.
Olympic bronze-medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal fought through a troubling knee to clinch her fourth title of the year by lifting the Denmark Open Super Series Premier trophy with a dominating win in the final in Odense, Denmark on Sunday.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and newly-crowned world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the final in women's and men's singles badminton respectively at the 21st Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to win a four-star badminton event.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday said India has adequate infrastructure for badminton but don't have enough coaches and academies. "There is no problem on infrastructure front, but what we don't have enough number of academies and coaches, like the Chinese have," she told PTI. Saina has been practising in Bengaluru after recovering from a knee injury which had affected her progress at Rio Olympics. She had lost her second group match against Ukraine's Maria Ulitina to crash out of the mega event.
It was day of mixed results for India at the US$750,000 Denmark Open Super Series in in Odense on Friday, as Kidambi Srikanth fought back brilliantly to shock World No 1 Victor Axelsen and enter the semis after Saina Nehwal crashed out of the event following her quarter-final loss to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.
