Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar on Monday unveiled the team jersey and anthem of Kerala Blasters, the Indian Super League team co-owned by him, and promised to support local talent in the state.
Shuttler PV Sindhu raised serious hopes of breaking India's long-awaited medal quest in the Rio Olympics by storming into the semifinals of the women's singles event with a stunning straight games win over London Games silver medallist Wang Yihan of China.
Indian badminton ace, Saina Nehwal continued her downward slide in the rankings falling to No 7 in the list.
'The Chinese will be gunning for revenge now after Sindhu's victory.'
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.
Ace shuttler Pulella Gopichand looks forward to a good season after recovering from injury.
'I'm least bothered about the rankings of Kashyap or Srikanth. I want to make it on my own by winning titles.'
Saina Nehwal's aggression and intensity quite literally wilted P V sindhu as she picked up the women's singles Commonwealth Games gold medal with exhilarating triumph in the final, in Gold Coast, on Sunday.
Hyderabad Hotshots stormed into the final of the inaugural Indian Badminton League after a convincing 3-0 victory over Pune Pistons in the first semi-final in Hyderabad, on Wednesday.
Banga Beats' hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Indian Badminton League went up in smoke after they lost their must-win match against hosts Pune Pistons 4-1 at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi in Pune.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal started her campaign on a positive note, advancing to the second round of the women's singles competition but it was curtains for Parupalli Kashyap and K Srikanth in the men's singles category of the All England championship in London.
Ajay Jayaram suffered a shock first round defeat to lower-ranked Chinese Yuekun Chen in the China Masters in Changzhou on Thursday.
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.
The discontent with the Indian Badminton League has almost come to an end as men's doubles specialists Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar have decided to compete in the franchise-based tournament.
Expectations will be sky-high when Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu returns to international circuit this week, spearheading the Indian campaign at Denmark Open Superseries Premier badminton tournament starting in Odense from Tuesday. A slew of felicitation programs kept her busy in the last one and a half month after Sindhu returned from Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first Indian badminton player to win a silver and her legions of fans will expect her to replicate the Olympic success when she competes this week. The sixth-seeded Indian will open her campaign against China's He Bingjiao on Wednesday. Sindhu has been clubbed in the second half of the draw where she might face the likes of second seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, Korean fourth seed Sung Ji Hyun and the tricky Chinese Taipei girl Tai Tzu Ying, seeded fifth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes that poured in for Badminton Association of India president Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta, who passed away in Lucknow after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday.
Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal may have hit global headlines with their big wins against China's superstars of badminton but sadly they have not made it into the state-run Chinese media, which played down their herculean achievement.
Rising shuttler P V Sindhu stole the show with a hard-fought win over World No.3 Germany's Juliane Schenk as Awadhe Warriors sailed into the semi-finals of the inaugural Indian Badminton League with a clinical win over Pune Pistons in Hyderabad.
One of the most awaited matches of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL) turned out to be a damp squib as Saina Nehwal trampled PV Sindhu 21-19, 21-8 at the Siri Fort Complex.
Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram continued his rampaging run at the Korea Open notching up a sensational straight-game upset victory over world No 7 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei to storm into the finals of the $ 600,000 Super Series event, in Seoul, on Saturday.
When Bollywood star Akshay Kumar joined hands with Premier Badminton League (PBL), only entertainment was expected.
Top shuttlers, including Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain and Rio silver medallists P V Sindhu, will be for grabs when the high-profile Players' Auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League (PBL) gets underway in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides Marin and Sindhu, Olympic bronze winner Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will be among the 16 Olympic medallists who have confirmed their participation at the second edition of the event to be held from January 1 to 14.
In what would come as some relief for embattled shuttler Jwala Gutta, who is facing a life ban for alleged disciplinary breach, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh said he can look into her dispute with the Badminton Association of India if she approaches him.
Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram notched up a superb straight-game win over Estonia's Raul Must in the finals to defend his men's singles title at the Dutch Open Grand Prix in Almere, The Netherlands on Sunday.
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'
Awadhe Warriors brother-sister pair of Markis Kido and Pia Bernadeth held their nerves in a close encounter to win the crucial fifth match and the tie 3-2 against Mumbai Masters in the second semi-final to set up the summit clash with Hyderabad Hotshots in the Indian Badminton League on Thursday.
Banga Beats fought back from a 2-0 deficit to clinch the game by 3-2 in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) face-off against bottom-placed Banga Beats in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal emerged the lone survivor at the US $400,000 All England Championship, thrashing Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour in straight-games to reach the second round even as compatriot PV Sindhu fell by the wayside in Birmingham.
'If we have one dedicated coach to train 50-100 coaches who can go back and coach their wards, that will be a very good move'
Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal on Sunday headed for a gold medal showdown at the 18th Asian Games after their quarter-final victories ensured India's first ever women's singles medals at the continental event.
'I didn't really like the way media put it that I have demanded the award. Who am I to demand for the award? I am nobody. I just wanted to know why my name was not considered'
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The network also unveiled a new brand identity for Star Sports across six channels and has renamed all the ESPN channels, subsequent to the buyout of ESPN Inc's stake in their 16 year old joint venture ESPN STAR Sports.
H S Prannoy outwitted World No 2 and title favourite Kidambi Srikanth in a thrilling final to win the men's singles title at the 82nd Senior National Championship, in Nagpur on Wednesday.
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.
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.
India ace Kidmabi Srikanth clinched his third Super Series Premier title with a dominating straight-game victory over Korean veteran Lee Hyun II in a lop-sided final of the US $750,000 Denmark Open, in Odense, on Sunday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
India badminton team have been accorded the top seed this time and are clubbed with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Scotland in Group A.
The London Olympics bronze medallist will next play seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who knocked out two-time defending champion Spain's Carolina Marin 21-18, 14-21, 21-15 in the other quarter-final.
An angry Saina Nehwal slammed the Sports Ministry after the Olympic bronze medallist's name was not included for the prestigious Padma Bhushan award -- India's third highest civilian award.
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