India's Saina Nehwal on Saturday crashed out of the Orleans Masters after losing in the semi-final against Denmark's Line Christophersen, in Paris on Saturday.
This is also India's third Olympics medal in badminton - Saina Nehwal had won the bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
The struggle of Indian women shuttlers on the BWF circuit is quite apparent, but Saina Nehwal backs her colleagues by saying that even the strong Chinese players are finding it difficult to dish out strong performances on a consistent basis and expressed hope that the lean patch of the singles players will end soon.
The 28-year-old from Hyderabad, a winner of the Indonesia Masters, semi-finalist at Malaysia Masters and quarter-finalist at the All England Championship, saw US$36,825 added to her career earnings.
Badminton's Tokyo rankings frozen as BWF rules out any more qualifying tournaments.
The Indians, who were also Asian champions, defeated the current world champions in 43 minutes.
With Saina Nehwal's gold medal women's badminton singles India finished third on the medals tally at the 21st Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Sunday.
Defending champion Lakshya Sen looked in fine fettle as he registered a straight-game win over compatriot H S Prannoy to make a winning start to his title defence at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Delhi, on Tuesday.
The Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament, one of badminton's last two Olympic qualifying events, was on Friday postponed due to a recent COVID-19 surge in the host country, dealing a severe blow to the Tokyo hopes of Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.
H S Prannoy stunned two-time defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a thrilling 68-minute quarter-final to ensure a medal for India.
Kashyap, a Commonwealth Games champion, was trailing 8-14 in the third game when he chose to retire after pulling his calf muscle.
This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year.
Earlier, BWF and Badminton England had delayed the start of the event by a couple of hours following a 'significant number' of inconclusive COVID-19 test results.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal has decided to donate Rs 6 lacs -- Rs 50,000 each -- to the families of the 12 Central Reserve Police Force jawans killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh last week.
Badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap continued their wedding celebrations with a post-wedding cocktail party in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Pullela Gopichand called P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal -- his two most successful pupils -- as 'precious diamonds'.
Saina Nehwal suffered her seventh straight defeat to world No 1 and old nemesis Tai Tzu Ying, going down in the summit clash of the $ 350,000 Indonesia Masters in Jakarta on Sunday.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who is returning from an ankle injury, begins her campaign against former World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the first round of Malaysia Open.
Former national badminton coach Vimal Kumar lauded Saina Nehwal for not letting her relationship with fellow shuttler Parupalli Kashyap affect her game.
Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth will lock horns with Japan's Koki Watanabe, while Sourabh Verma faces France's Toma Junior Popov.
India will be sending full teams for the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold (May 30-June 4), Indonesia Open Super Series (June 12-18) and Australian Open Super Series (June 20-25).
The top seeded Indian duo, who reached the semi-finals of the season-opening Malaysia Open super 1000, was scheduled to face Chinese Taipei's Su Ching Heng and Ye Hong Wei in the opening round.
Top shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, are likely to leave for Malaysia and Singapore via Doha to participate in the last two Olympic qualifiers next month due to travel bans imposed by the two countries in the wake of unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases in India.
Krishna and Vishnu had paired for the first time in this event and would be pleased with the results they managed.
In a startling disclosure, India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal revealed that she had to initially hide her relationship with husband Parupalli Kashyap because of 'societal barriers'.
Sindhu was made to toil hard by China's He Bing Jiao
Prannoy signs off with maiden World Championships bronze medal after losing semifinal to Vitidsarn
Former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal will miss the World Championships for the first time in her international career due to multiple injuries that have derailed her season.
Since the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, India has won 28 medals in total, and 23 since its Independence in 1947.
On Wednesday, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, seeded eighth, scraped past the Denmark duo of Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn 21-9, 17-21, 21-19 in the women's doubles.
The absence of double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also hurt India's prospect as the team cut a sorry figure at the team-tournament.
Star shuttler Saina Nehwal will donate Rs 2 lakh for the people affected by the heavy rains and flood in Tamil Nadu.
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.
Ajay Jayaram kept India's flag flying by entering the men's singles quarterfinals.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal is placed fourth in the list headed by American tennis legend Serena Williams followed by Maria Sharapova and elder sister Venus.
The former world junior number one thus joined fellow Indians Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015) in winning a silver medal at the prestigious tournament.
India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal tied the knot with fellow badminton player and long time partner Parupalli Kashyap in Hyderabad on Friday.
Carolina Marin broke Indian hearts as the World No.1 beat second seed Saina Nehwal in straight game to lift the World Championships title in Jakarta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated shuttlers Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth for their victories at the China Open Super Series tournament on Sunday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances