India's batting great Sachin Tendulkar celebrated Diwali at his home in Mumbai on Saturday, while Olympic medallists like Saina Nehwal and MC Mary Kom took to social media to wish their fans.
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.
Former national badminton coach Vimal Kumar lauded Saina Nehwal for not letting her relationship with fellow shuttler Parupalli Kashyap affect her game.
The couple invited superstar Chiranjeevi for their wedding ceremony.
London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal has pulled out of the US$350,000 Singapore Super Series to spend more time in training to improve her game ahead of the hectic international circuit.
Lakshya leaves Paris with the best-ever finish by an Indian shuttler in the men's singles event at the Olympics.
Srikanth showed great determination to outwit Korea's World No 25 Lee Dong Keun 12-21, 21-16, 21-18 in a second-round clash that clocked an hour and 13 minutes. The Indian had lost twice to the 27-year-old Korean in the past two meetings.
Lakshya Sen falls to Axelsen in semis, to play bronze-medal playoff
'Taare Zameen Par' director Amole Gupte will be making a biopic on the world's leading badminton player Saina Nehwal, the shooting for which will begin next year.
P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen sailed into the second round but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth on a mixed day for India at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Wednesday.
The Indian hockey team entered the Olympic semifinals for a second successive edition but Lakshya Sen's zealous push for a gold turned into a hunt for bronze on a bitter-sweet Sunday for India at the Paris Games.
London Games bronze medallist Saina, who had retired midway through her first match at Uber Cup Final due to a groin injury, couldn't match Japan's world no 20 Aya Ohori and lost 21-16, 21-14 in the opening round.
The National Commission for Women has asked Twitter to block the account of actor Siddharth for his alleged 'lewd and inappropriate' tweet against badminton player Saina Nehwal and also wrote to the Maharashtra police seeking registration of an FIR against him.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki N Reddy also won their mixed doubles first round match, beating Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje 10-21, 21-16, 21-17.
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.
Now all eyes are on the two Super 1000 events -- Yonex Thailand Open (January 12-17) and Toyota Thailand Open (January 19-24) as the world's best return to action following a prolonged break.
India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal accused the sport's administrators of placing money above players' safety by continuing last week's All England Championships despite the coronavirus pandemic. The 30-year-old lost in the opening round of the marquee event, which was among a handful which continued even as the bulk of global sporting calendar was either postponed or cancelled.
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.
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'.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
The Indian challenge ended at the Asia Badminton Championship after Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy went down fighting in the singles semi-finals, in Wuhan, on Saturday.
Gopichand also wondered to why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar 'never had anything positive to say about him'.
'Both Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy have been cleared to participate in the ongoing Yonex Thailand Open after the fourth-round tests reports confirmed that both shuttlers have been tested negative for COVID-19.'
Three-time champion Saina Nehwal registered a 21-18, 21-15 win against PV Sindhu, a two-time winner, in the summit clash.
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.
On the occasion of International Olympic Day, Sushil Kumar and Saina Nehwal shared their medal-winning memories at the showpiece event.
Sindhu lost 7-21, 24-22, 15-21 to Beiwen Zhang of United States in a match that lasted 56 minutes while World Championships bronze-medallst Sai Praneeth was trailing 9-21, 7-11 when he conceded the match to fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark due to an unspecified injury.
Sindhu now leads 3-0 against the Chinese on head-to-head.
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.
Lack of adequate time to recover after a late night match affected Saina Nehwal's performance in the semi-finals, feels her coach Vimal Kumar, who called for perfect scheduling of matches in big ticket events such as World Championship and Olympics.
His backhand blocks and forehand low returns reaped dividends but an alert Gemke managed to grab a four-point cushion at the interval.
If Saina manages to go past Okuhara, the Indian might run into fourth seed Carolina Marin, who is placed in her half of the draw.
Saina Nehwal says Tai Tzu-Ying's repertoire of shots and the ability to not restrict her game to a set pattern makes the World No 1 from Chinese Taipei a very difficult player to beat at the moment.
India ace Saina Nehwal was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad to undergo treatment for her knee injury which affected her progress in the badminton event of the Rio Olympics.
Bollywood's obsession with biopics is getting stronger with each year. The focus seems to be on Indian sportswomen.
India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal tied the knot with fellow badminton player and long time partner Parupalli Kashyap in Hyderabad on Friday.
India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Monday stressed on the importance of taking necessary precautions in the next two weeks to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has created a global upheaval. Former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth also took to twitter, urging people to help each other instead of panicking.
Former World No 1 Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, lost 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 to World No 2 Yamaguchi in a 50-minute women's singles clash.
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PV Sindhu had to dig deep to down a fighting Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam but Saina Nehwal did not break any sweat as India's top two shuttlers advanced to the women's singles second round at the 18th Asian Games, in Jakarta, on Thursday.
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