Riding on his back-to-back Super Series triumphs, India's ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth broke back into the top-10 at eighth in the latest world rankings.
India's top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be seen in action for the first time since the coronavirus-forced break when they compete in three upcoming tournaments in Bangkok, including the prestigious BWF World Tour Finals.
Expectations from the Indian male shuttlers will also be high, given their exploits in recent months.
This is the second time in her career, after April 6 this year that Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu has occupied the second spot on the leaderboard.
P V Sindhu stormed into the quarter-finals of the women's singles badminton at the Olympics with an easy 21-15, 21-13 victory over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in Tokyo on Thursday.
India's up-and-coming shuttler Sai Praneeth is confident he can compete with the best in the business and emulate compatriots Parupalli Kashyap and K Srikanth in winning a Grand Prix Gold title.
India's top shuttlers including Olympic medallist P V Sindhu train under national coach P Gopichand in Hyderabad.
Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who made early exits at the China Open and Korea Open, dropped to the 6th spot after five months and the former World No 2 shuttler will look to make amends at the Denmark Open and French Open.
Rising shuttlers Sai Praneeth, P C Thulasi and Arundhati Pantawane qualified for the main draw of the Singapore Super Series after winning their respective qualifying round matches at the Singapore Indoor stadium on Tuesday.
Sindhu dished out a compact game to outwit Sayaka 21-17, 21-16 in a second round match on Thursday to set up a clash with seventh seeded Chinese He Bingjiao.
Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth lifted his maiden Grand Prix gold title by posting a come-from-behind victory over Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the men's singles final of the a4 1,20,000 Thailand Open in Bangkok on Sunday.
With the coronavirus pandemic halting all sport activities, India's former chief badminton coach Vimal Kumar on Tuesday urged the government to allow the Olympic-bound athletes to continue their training after conducting the required tests. Following the respective directives of the Talengana and Karnataka governments, the Pullela Gopichand academy in Hyderbad and Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore have been shut down for two weeks.
In a do-or-die encounter, Banga Beats' icon player Parupalli Kashyap won his singles match.
India's Kidambi Srikanth registered a hard-fought victory to enter the semi-finals of the men's singles at the Singapore Super Series, even as P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth lost in straight games.
'Badminton has best shot at medals in Tokyo and a letter was sent to IOA to this respect on Monday mentioning the six-member support team that also includes chief coach Gopichand's name along with the squad of four players.'
An Indian team which is a nice little blend of youth and experience, will have to punch above its weight in what's going to be an arduous challenge in the Sudirman Cup mixed team championships here on Sunday.
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and RMV Gurusaidutt reached the pre-quarter-finals of the Indonesian Super Series Premier, but it turned out to be a bad day in office for world No 10 Parupalli Kashyap as he crashed out of the men's singles, in Jakarta.
India's Lakshya Sen on Thursday progressed to the quarter-finals of the All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham, while HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round.
The Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight games defeat to the world No. 1 Indonesian pair of Marcus Gideon Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in their second Group A match at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
P V Sindhu and Anand Pawar kept India's hopes alive by making it to the semi-finals of the women's and men's singles event of the India Open Super Series Badminton Championship.
Saina Nehwal, who won the tournament last year before going through a lean patch, lost 19-21, 13-21, 5-21 to Sayaka Takahashi in 50 minutes.
The Olympic silver medallist will now face Korea's An Se Young next.
Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap advanced to the main draw of the men's singles competition of Japan Super Series after registering twin victories in the two rounds of the qualifiers in Tokyo on Tuesday.
RMV Gurusaidutt made it to the main draw of the men's singles at the Malaysia Super Series, after contrasting victories in the first two rounds of the qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The Indian shuttler first staved off the challenge from Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia, winning 21-23, 21-18, 21-14, and then brushed aside Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-9.
RMV Gurusaidutt made it to the main draw of the men's singles at the Malaysia Super Series, after contrasting victories in the first two rounds of the qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The Indian shuttler first staved off the challenge from Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia, winning 21-23, 21-18, 21-14, and then brushed aside Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-9.
Reigning World champion P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth were handed easy group stage outings in the badminton draws unveiled on Thursday for the Tokyo Olympics, starting on July 23.
Srikanth, now ranked five, was placed seventh before the Malaysia Open, where he lost his last-four clash to the reigning Asian champion Kento Momota.
Indian shuttler Sai Praneeth failed to make it to the main draw of the Li Ning China Masters. He went down fighting to Huan Gao of China in the qualification round of the men's singles at Changzhou on Tuesday. Huan will take on London Olympics quarter-finalist and Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist P Kashyap of India on Wednesday.
Rankireddy and Shetty, who created history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF Super 500 tournament, are placed ninth in the men's doubles rankings issued on Tuesday.
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.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu is set to fly out of London on Sunday -- she will reach Bangkok via Doha.
PV Sindhu outclassed Germany's Yvonne Li to cruise into the women's singles quarter-finals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event in Bali on Thursday.
World no 10 men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, however, are expected to face a stiff challenge in the league stage.
Top seed Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the semi-finals of the US $120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton championship after a straight games victory over Takuma Ueda of Japan in the men's singles quarter-finals in Basel on Friday. The Indian beat the eighth seed 21-11, 21-12 in 31 minutes.
India has been battling a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced many countries to ban travellers from India.
Indian athletes opened their campaign in the inaugural Youth Olympics on a disappointing note with most of them failing to get past the preliminary round and the lone weightlifter finishing fifth in Singapore on Sunday.
World champion P V Sindhu frittered away a one-game lead and lost 21-16, 16-21, 19-21 to Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in 66 minutes.
Sindhu had resumed training last month under the supervision of Korean coach Park Tae-Sang after the Sports Authority of India
World championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen entered his maiden World Tour Super 500 summit clash on Saturday with a come-from-behind win over Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open in New Delhi.
H S Prannoy stunned World No 10 Kanta Tsuneyama while ace Indian women shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal also sailed into the second round of the Malaysia Masters, in Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday. World Championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth, though, bowed out of the men's singles events.
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