Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching the maximum prize of 100,000$, while Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for a whopping 95,000$ and 80,000$ respectively at the rechristened Premier Badminton League (PBL) players' auction on Monday.
Star shuttler Jwala Gutta once again asked the Badminton Association of India to stop the "step-motherly treatment" towards its doubles players, saying its high time the federation changes its attitude. "I've won medals at the highest level but you're still not capitalising on the achievement. The doubles are still being given a step-motherly treatment. You need to change your attitude," a concerned Jwala told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the 12th South Asian Games here. "After Ashwini and I, there is nobody and that is the plain truth. It's the doubles, I'm more worried about," a three-time medalist in the Commonwealth Games 2006, 2010 and 2014 lamented. "If we want to compete with China, we have to encourage all the events. We can't just bank on singles all the time. Doubles is taken seriously everywhere except India," the ace shuttler said.
Pramod and Manishaa Ramdass also secured a bronze medal in mixed doubles (SL3-SU5) category.
Indian badminton doubles ace Jwala Gutta was in for a surprise as last minute changes were made to her playing schedule at the London Olympics on Friday.
India have sent an 84-strong contingent of para-athletes, the largest ever in the country's history -- a heady mix of youth and experience, for the Paralympic Games, starting in Paris on Wednesday.
Already through to the quarter-finals, defending champions India continued their rampaging run as they beat Australia 4-1 in their final group A match of mixed team competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu fought valiantly but was outperformed by sixth seed Han Yue of China in a gruelling pre-quarterfinal of the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo on Thursday.
In a 73-minute battle, Ayush, who hails from Sanoor near Karkala in Karnataka, showed his grit as he recovered from a game down to outwit his Indonesian opponent.
South Korea's Olympic badminton gold medallist Lee Yong-dae has been hit with a one-year ban for missing doping tests, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said on Tuesday.
It was a tough day for the Indian shuttlers barring Ajay Jayaram, who sailed into the men's singles semi-finals with a comfortable win over compatriot Anand Pawar in the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in El Monte.
Indian Badminton player Ashwini Ponnappa on Sunday got married to businessman and model Karan Medappa at a ceremony in Karnataka's Coorg.
India should not have split their regular women's doubles pair to accommodate two combinations in Asian Games badminton team event, feels ex-shuttler Uday Pawar.
PV Sindhu finally fetched India its first ever World Championships gold in the sport but spent rest of the year struggling for form.
P V Sindhu took a giant stride towards securing a title at the Malaysia Masters after progressing to the semifinals with a hard-fought win over top seed Han Yue of China
Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu scored an upset victory over top seed Ji Hyun Sung in a hard-fought three setter to storm into the women's singles final of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Penang on Saturday.
Coaching is the toughest job: Saina Nehwal on her future
Sindhu saw off Sim 21-13, 12-21, 21-14 in a 59-minute women's singles second-round match to register her third win over the Korean world number 34.
Sindhu expectedly faced no resistance from Uganda's Husina Kobugabe, winning 21-10, 21-9 in her pre-quarterfinal match.
The 25-year-old Indian, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from injuries, beat Mithun 21-9, 21-15 in just 31 minutes to set up a title clash with Japan's Koki Watanabe on Sunday.
India's PV Sindhu, drawn in easy group, faces Israel's Ksenia in opener.
The core of the team remains the same with HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in good form and the Indian team would hope the rub of the green also goes their way when it begins campaign on Thursday.
China shrugged off badminton's biggest Olympic scandal to sweep all five titles at London four years ago but the Asian super-power is trying to keep a lid on expectations of another bumper gold medal haul at the Rio de Janeiro Games. The peerless team that set up the 'Great Haul of China' in London will line up almost unchanged at Rio, anchored by men's singles great Lin Dan and women's champion Li Xuerui. So strong were the Chinese in 2012 that they swept the titles without the reigning world champion women's doubles pairing of Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, who were expelled from the tournament in disgrace.
India's athletes are being told that plenty of shut-eye could be the foundation for Olympic success and the team has roped in sleep therapist Monika Sharma to keep them at their sharpest in Paris.
A vociferous crowd failed to inspire India as the hosts went down fighting to Malaysia 1-3 in the finals of the mixed badminton event to settle for a silver in the Commonwealth Games at the Siri Fort sport complex in New Delhi on Friday.
Malvika, the only Indian woman left in the singles draw, overcame Karupathevan Letshanaa of Malaysia 21-12, 21-16.
Indian shuttlers bagged the Asian Youth badminton championship titles in both Under-15 and Under-17 categories to wrap up the tournament with two gold and two bronze, their best ever performance at the competition, in Kudus, Indonesia, on Sunday.
London Olympics bronze-medallist in mixed doubles, Joachim Fischer Nielsen of Denmark feels India has a "strong" men's and women's singles pool and the country is fast emerging as a force to reckon with in world badminton.
HS Prannoy made an early exit from the Korea Open Super 500 tournament
Ashwini Ponnappa, who will partner Jwala Gutta in the women's doubles at the Olympics, is confident of peaking in time and doing well at the mega event.
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu rallied from a game down to eke out a hard-fought win over Thailand's Supanida Katethong and enter the semi-finals of the Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament, in Lucknow, on Friday.
Jonatan Christie gifted Indonesia the Asian Games gold medal they most yearned for when he beat Taiwan's Chou Tienchen in an exciting men's singles badminton final in front of a vociferous home crowd on Tuesday.
India bowed out of the Thomas Cup badminton championships after suffering a 0-3 thrashing by Malaysia in the quarterfinals in Macau.
But the Indian mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan suffered a close 18-21, 21-10, 22-24, loss to Russian pair of Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova, while another pair of Tarun Kona and Sikki N Reddy too went down 13-21, 17-21 against Liao Min Chun and Chen Hsiao Huan of Chinese Taipei.
Rishabh Pant has been nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.
Six medals from a 117-strong contingent is not ideal but India had its moments of joy, hope, frustration, and heartache.
Satwik-Chirag eyeing "great things" at Paris Olympics after cracking service variation challenge
The Indian mixed doubles team of V Diju and Jwala Gutta eased into the third round beating Malaysia's Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh at the World badminton Championships in Paris, on Tuesday.
With Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu in good form, India will surely win at least three medals from badminton in the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, says Jwala Gutta, the country's No 1 doubles player.
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.
China and Indonesia won the Badminton Asia Team Championships in the women and men's categories respectively at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
