Indian shuttlers had a bad day at the French Super Series, as Saina Nehwal and three others lost in the second round, in Paris, on Thursday.
Asked about Saina Nehwal, whose 2012 London Games bronze medal winning show was a path breaker for Indian women's badminton, Padukone is confident that the 26-year-old former World number one will be regain her best form.
Saina Nehwal's hopes of winning her maiden 'World Super Series Finals title this year went up in smoke as she lost her semi-final clash against top seed and current Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China in a three-game encounter.
World No 1 Saina Nehwal is all set to defend her women's singles title at the Australian Open super series .
The London Olympics bronze medallist displaced Spain's Carolina Marin, who defeated her in the women's final of the World Championships in Jakarta last Sunday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
She is inching closer to being among the world's top five and is tipped to be number one in the next couple of years but ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal says being numero uno is still a very distant dream.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal played her heart out but eventually ran out of steam as French Hongyan Pi beat her in a gruelling quarterfinal encounter of the Malaysian Super Series in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her fine form, beating Ukrainian Larysa Gryga in straight games to advance to the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of the badminton competition at the Olympic Games in Beijing on Sunday. Saina beat Gryga 21-18, 21-10 to advance to the last 16, where she will face the winner of the match between world number three Hong Kong's Chen Wang and Slovakia's Eva Sladekova.
Saina Nehwal stormed into the women's singles quarter-finals at the World Badminton Championships at the Wembley Arena, in London, on Thursday. The world No 6 Indian ace was leading 21-3, 13-5 when her opponent, Pui Yin Yi of Hong Kong, seeded 14th, retired from the third round match.
In the absence of top Chinese shuttlers, Indian ace Saina Nehwal has been seeded number one and handed a relatively easy draw in the upcoming Yonex Sunrise Indian Open badminton tournament, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from April 23-28.
Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal retained the men's and women's singles titles at the National Badminton Championship.
Terming the Siri Fort stadium as her happy hunting ground, World No 3 Saina Nehwal expressed confidence of putting up a good show in the upcoming Indian Open Super Series, which begins on Tuesday.
The Indian cricket team was given a big thumbs up by major badminton players on Saturday.
India's ace shuttler and a brand ambassador for Commonwealth Games Saina Nehwal on Saturday created a flutter by questioning the country's capability of holding such a mega event but retracted her controversial statement within moments.
It will not be a Saina Nehwal versus P V Sindhu final in the women's singles but the men's singles will be an all-Indian affair with P Kashyap and K Srikanth set to clash for the title at the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament, in Lucknow.
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.
After sneaking into the elite zone of top-10 players in the world India top women's shuttler Saina Nehwal has set her eyes on breaking into top-five bracket by the end of next year. The Hyderabadi ace, brimming with confidence, said she is in no mood to relax and will do whatever it takes to grab a place in the top-five ranking.
Saina Nehwal's hopes of defending her Singapore Open crown were dashed by Chinese Taipei's Shao Chieh Cheng in a thrilling three-game pre-quarter-final in Singapore City on Thursday. The fourth seeded Indian blew the advantage of winning the first game and suffered a 21-8, 10-21, 19-21 defeat against the world No 10 in a match that lasted 52 minutes.
Upbeat over winning the China Open and moving up to the fourth spot in the latest BWF rankings, star shuttler Saina Nehwal says she is working on becoming the best in the world.
The Indian challenge at the Swiss Super Series badminton tournament ended with Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal going down to their more fancied rivals.
After clinching her career's fourth Super Series title with a thumping victory in the Hong Kong Open, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday said the triumph has made up for the disappointment of last month's Asian Games debacle.
After winning three successive international tournaments, badminton maven Saina Nehwal is confident of conquering next month's World Championship in Paris.
Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and boxing hero Vijender Singh are among six sportspersons who were named brand ambassadors on Tuesday for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the All-England Badminton Championships with a straight games victory over Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia, in London, on Thursday night. The world No 2 Indian ace won 21-16, 21-11 in 34 minutes to set up a meeting with sixth seeded Chinese Shixian Wang on Saturday.
India's top doubles badminton player Jwala Gutta on Wednesday hit out at singles star Saina Nehwal for her comments that Taufik Hidayat should accept the reality that he is a retired player and cannot get highest base price in the Indian Badminton League.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was the only bright spot in what turned out to be a dismal day for the Indian badminton team as it crashed out of the prestigious Sudirman Cup after a 1-4 loss to three-time champions Korea in a Group 1D tie, in Dongguan China, on Wednesday.
In the biggest match of the Indian Badminton League, World No 4 Saina Nehwal did not disappoint.
Manika Batra, who has become toast of the nation after her sensational run at the Gold Coast Games, is hoping that she has done enough to spark a table tennis revolution in India like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu did for badminton.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, shooter Gagan Narang and India cricketer VVS Laxman were among several sportspersons who were the part of the Queen's Baton Relay that arrived in Hyderabad on Saturday.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal retained third place in the latest world badminton rankings, announced on Friday.
Saina Nehwal will carry a billion hopes when she takes the court in the World badminton Championship but the ace India shuttler remains quietly confident about her chances in the event which gets underway in Paris on Monday.
Twice World Championships bronze medalist P V Sindhu ran out of steam and was beaten by Korea's Sung Ji Hyun in the quarter-finals of badminton's showpiece event, in Jakarta, on Friday. The 20-year-old from Hyderabad, who had beaten Olympic champion and former world No 1 Li Xuerui of China in the previous round on Thursday, lost 17-21, 21-19, 21-16 in 82 minutes.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
London Olympics bronze medallist shuttler, Saina Nehwal notched up a comfortable straight-game victory over Thailand's Sapsiree Taerattanachai at the French Open Super Series in Paris on Thursday and stayed on course for her second successive title after Denmark Open triumph last week.
Having risen swiftly to the No 2 ranking in world badminton, Indian ace Saina Nehwal is confident of ascending to the summit soon.
Ace shuttler and world number five Saina Nehwal on Thursday crashed out in the second round of the Asia Badminton Championship at Qingdao, China as India wrapped up their campaign on a disappointing note in the tournament.
Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal is very skillful and has the potential to win a medal at this year's London Olympics provided she continues to work hard, feels World No. 1 male shuttler Lee Chong Wei.
Way ahead of the targets she set herself for 2010, Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal is now aiming for the world number one ranking by the end of this year.
The city is in garba and dandiya practice mode.
