India's 572 athletes hope to return home with an overflowing treasure chest of medals.
Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu made it to her maiden Super Series final with a stunning upset victory over reigning world champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the Denmark Open.
Saina Nehwal advanced to the second round with an easy victory, but it was a disappointing day for Indians overall, as Parupalli Kashyap and P V Sindhu failed to cross the opening round in the Hong Kong Super Series on Wednesday. Looking for her first title this season, world No 7 Saina hardly broke a sweat as she outplayed Indonesia's Bellaetrix Manuputty 21-14, 21-16 in 34 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth continued his fine form to enter the men's singles semi-finals but Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu bowed out of the Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament in Sydney, on Friday.
PV Sindhu is keen to work harder on various aspects of her game and put up better performances against top players in the coming year.
The deadly COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented postponement as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Japanese government and the athletes world over agreed that Olympics in July-August this year could not have gone ahead in the present circumstances.
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu on Saturday accused an Indigo ground staff of misbehaving with her while travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai, even as the airline rejected the celebrated shuttler's allegations.
Indian women's team settled for a bronze medal after suffering a 0-3 defeat at the hands of defending champions China in the semi-finals of the Uber Cup badminton championship, in Kunshan, on Friday.
Seven Indian shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal and Jwala Gutta, officially earned qualification berths for the August Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after the much-awaited BWF world rankings were released on Thursday. Friday's rankings were used to determine the Olympic qualifiers in each of the five categories -- men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles -- from the points accumulated in the period between May 4, 2015 and May 1st, 2016. Four years ago, five Indians had qualified at London Olympics. This year, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina would be representing India in her third Games, while the women's doubles pair of Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa will also play their second Olympics in August. Besides, K Srikanth and P V Sindhu earned their maiden Olympic berths in men's singles and women's events respectively. For the first time, India will have two women's singles players playing in the Olympics.
P V Sindhu breezed into the summit clash of the World Tour Finals for the second successive time after prevailing over 2013 World champion Ratchanok Intanon in a tense semi-final.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu continued her unbeaten run while debutant Sameer Verma also qualified for the knockout stage with a straight-game win in his last Group B match at the BWF World Tour Finals.
India's schedule for Thursday, the sixth day of competition at the Asian Games, in Incheon.
The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
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.
Saina Nehwal has once again resumed her partnership with long-time mentor and former coach Pullela Gopichand and would be starting her training at his academy in Hyderabad after recovering from a thigh strain.
Speaking at a felicitation function for the Commonwealth Games medal winners in New Delhi, Rathore said there was no dearth of money in Indian sports but the funds will have to be used for justified purposes by both the athletes as well as the federations.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth scored contrasting victories to enter the quarter-finals of the US $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Penang, on Thursday.
Seventeen shooters, prominent among who is Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, are among 45 athletes selected by the government for financial assistance under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme.
When Bollywood star Akshay Kumar joined hands with Premier Badminton League (PBL), only entertainment was expected.
Both states try to outsmart each other in felicitating the shuttler.
The Indian duo of Thanackal Gopi and Kheta Ram put up an inspired show and clock their personal best timings to finish 25th and 26th respectively in the men's marathon at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.
The Awadhe Warriors virtually assured itself a berth in the semi-finals but it turned out to be a disappointing day for the Hyderabad Hunters in the ongoing Premier Badminton League (PBL) here today. The Warriors registered an emphatic 4-1 win over Chennai Smashers in the evening match but the Hunters were out of contention for a semi-final berth following their 1-4 loss against Mumbai Rockets early in the day at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad. Awadhe gained two points with a win in the Mixed Doubles clash, which was the Trump match for both sides, and bagged two more points by defeating Chennai in Men's Doubles and one of the two Men's Singles' matches.
P V Sindhu and K Srikanth have been given the top billing in the respective women's and men's singles badminton competitions of the Commonwealth Games
P V Sindhu hoped to regain peak fitness before the start of individual events and assured India will return with multiple medals.
The abundance of talent is complemented by a confident approach which the likes of Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh, Anish Bhanwala and Anjum Moudgil will display at the Games.
Pullela Gopichand salutes P V Sindhu on her superb showing that saw her return with a silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan launched ace tennis player Sania Mirza's autobiography 'Ace against Odds' at a function in Mumbai on Sunday. Sania, who will partner Prarthana Thombare from Maharashtra at the prestigious Olympics Games in Rio heaped praise on the latter, describing her as a very good tennis player. "I and Prarthana (Thombare) is the first pair, who has won a medal. In Asian Games we have won a women's doubles medal. But besides that, she is a young girl, and she is a good prospect for us.
She might have won almost all big events in a short span of her international career but Olympic champion and World No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain says she is still hungry for titles.
H S Prannoy stunned World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in straight games to storm into the men's singles quarterfinals but India suffered huge setback in women's event with both Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu crashing out of the Indonesia Super Series Premier in Jakarta on Thursday.
'I have grown up in an environment where the dominant narrative of Indian sporting achievement was -- We can't.' 'These achievers have fought hard, built on each other's body of work and knowledge, and have today changed the script to -- We can,' notes Rahul Dravid,cricketing legend.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu made a winning start to her maiden campaign at the prestigious BWF World Super Series Final, defeating higher-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in an entertaining opening women's singles Group B match in Dubai on Thursday. Sindhu, who recently clinched the China Super Series Premier and reached the finals at Hong Kong Open, eked out a 12-21 21-8 21-15 win over World No. 8 Yamaguchi in an exciting clash which lasted little over an hour. In the opening game, Sindhu conceded a 3-6 lead early on as she faltered with her strokes even as Yamaguchi grabbed points with her deception and riding on her rival's mistakes to go 11-5 up at the break.
In sizzling form after clinching the China Open and finishing runners-up at Hong Kong, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will look to sign off the year with another crown when she competes in the season-ending World Superseries Finals starting in Dubai from Wednesday. In Rio de Janeiro, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win an Olympics silver medal in August, but qualifying for the Dubai World Super Series final still was a far cry as she was placed at 16th in the Destination Dubai Rankings with just two events -- China Open and Hong Kong Open -- remaining.
Saina will next face either Thailand's fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon or Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Sindhu will take on the winner of the match between Sri Lanka's Kavidi Sirimannage and Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu got off to winning starts in their season, notching up straight-game victories in their respective opening round women's singles matches in the $500,000 Malaysia Super Series Premier on Wednesday.
India's hopes of winning twin titles in the Hong Kong Open Super Series were dashed on Sunday when Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu and national champion Sameer Verma lost their respective final clashes in contrasting fashion in Hong Kong. Sindhu, aiming for her second successive Super Series title, lost 15-21 17-21 to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying in a 41-minute women's singles clash. Verma, on the other hand, went down 14-21 21-10 11-21 to local favourite Ng Ka Long Angus in a contest which lasted 50 minutes.
As the year 2016 draws to a close, vote for the best Indian sportsperson of the year.
Thank you, Sindhu, for inspiring us with your passion.
PV Sindhu shared her happiness on winning second consecutive silver at the BWF World Championships.
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