Indian badminton star and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was Thursday ruled out along withParupalli Kashyap from the 12th South Asian Games due to injury concerns, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) informed the local organisers in Shillong. "We've received a communication from BAI stating that the entire badminton squad except for Saina and Kashyap is arriving on Friday afternoon," SAG (Shillong) joint CEO FR Kharkongor told PTI. Saina and Kashyap are two of the top badminton athletes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio. Jwala Gutta has been confirmed as the captain of the Indian team by BAI President Akhilesh Das Gupta.
Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal says the inclusion of former Olympic champion and her childhood hero Taufik Hidayat in her team Hyderabad Hotshots will serve as a moral booster in the upcoming Indian Badminton League.
Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal cruised into the singles second round but Shruti Kurian and Jwala Ghutta bowed out of women's doubles at the World Badminton Championships.
Saina Nehwal staved off the challenge from Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei in an edge-of-the-seat second round match to enter the quarter-final of the Malaysian Super Series in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
While Saina made short work of USA's Beiwan Zhang, second seed Sindhu had to dig deep to get the better of Japanese Sayaka Sato.
Reader Madhava K spotted Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal at Copenhagen airport.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday said India has adequate infrastructure for badminton but don't have enough coaches and academies. "There is no problem on infrastructure front, but what we don't have enough number of academies and coaches, like the Chinese have," she told PTI. Saina has been practising in Bengaluru after recovering from a knee injury which had affected her progress at Rio Olympics. She had lost her second group match against Ukraine's Maria Ulitina to crash out of the mega event.
P V Sindhu will be eager to return to the podium as former winner Saina Nehwal looks to regain her touch
Saina Nehwal's semi-final outing in the China Masters Super Series turned out to be a lopsided affair as the ace Indian shuttler crashed out of the event after suffering a straight-game defeat at hands of her new nemesis Zhou Mi in Changzhou on Saturday.
The city is in garba and dandiya practice mode.
Olympics Bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal failed to clinch back-to-back title as she suffered a shock straight-game defeat to Japanese Minatsu Mitani in the summit clash of the French Open Super Series in Paris on Sunday.
Title favourite and world number two Saina Mirza suffered a shock defeat at the hands of unseeded Yui Hashimoto of Japan in controversial circumstances to crash out of the Yonex Sunrise India Open Super Series in New Delhi.
The World No. 2 had pulled out of Badminton Asia Team Championships because of injury earlier this month, and also exempted herself from participating in the Lucknow Open and South Asian Championships to work on her fitness.
It was a day of mixed results for India as B Sai Praneeth sailed into the final with a straight-game win but Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal's campaign ended in the semi-final of the $120000 Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Bangkok on Saturday.
India's Saina Nehwal thrashed Olympic silver medallist Yihan Wang of China to storm into the semi-finals of the All England badminton championships in Birmingham.
Two-time defending champion Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Sunday. She was shocked by a lower-ranked Shixian Wang of China in the women's singles semi-final. The top seeded Indian ace fought hard before losing 11-21, 21-10, 9-21 to the fourth-seeded Chinese in a battle that lasted 50 minutes.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was on course for her third consecutive Swiss Open title as she stormed into the semi-finals of the Grand Prix Gold tournament after thrashing Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in Basel.
India's hopes of fetching five badminton medals at the Commonwealth Games suffered a massive jolt on Friday as ace shuttler and defending champion Saina Nehwal pulled out of the Glasgow event.
Parupalli Kashyap, who became the first Indian shuttler to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics Games, has said he draws inspiration from London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal. Kashyap, who received the Arjuna Award in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday, also said he is aiming to break into the top-15 of world badminton ranking by the end of this year.
Saina Nehwal, in a video message, has silently appealed to her country to look at the Indian Olympic contingent as one team rather than a group of individual athletes.
Early exits at Japan Open and Denmark Open proved costly for ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal as she lost her World No.1 crown to All England and World champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
Top seed Saina Nehwal breezed through her match as India's shuttlers had a successful outing in the individual badminton event at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday. World number three Saina thrashed Sarah Thomas of Wales 21-5, 21-9 to get closer to her first Commonwealth Games gold, while Melbourne bronze medallist Chetan Anand beat Nigeria's Ola Fagbemi 21-12, 21-6 in 21 minutes to stay on course to better his record at the sporting extravaganza.
On a high after clinching the Thailand Open title last week, Indian ace Saina Nehwal started her campaign at the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier with a thrilling three-game victory over Japan's Sayaka Sato in the women's singles competition in Jakarta.
Olympic bronze-medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal fought through a troubling knee to clinch her fourth title of the year by lifting the Denmark Open Super Series Premier trophy with a dominating win in the final in Odense, Denmark on Sunday.
India's rising shuttler attributed her defeat in the final of the World Junior badminton tournament to exhaustion.\n
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal clinched the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier tournament after beating young Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the summit clash, in Fuzhou, China, on Sunday.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal survived a scare from lower-ranked Japanese Nozomi Okuhara to advance to the semi-finals of the women's singles in the Malaysian Super Series, in Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. The top seeded Indian lost the second game 14-21, after winning the first 21-11, but with Nozomi retiring early in the third, she cemented a place into the last four.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal dished out yet another dominating performance, routing Japan's Eriko Hirose 21-9, 21-10 to storm into the final of the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament in Jakarta on Saturday. Saina thus earned a shot at her second successive Super Series title, having won the one in Singapore last week.
Take a look at what fit-again Saina needs to do before going into the Olympic Games in August this year.
'NO one is more selfless and brave than a soldier.'
Saina Nehwal once again faltered at the semi-final stage as she suffered a straight game defeat at the hands of China's Wang Yihan in the women's singles at the Asia Badminton Championships, in Wuhan, China, on Saturday.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal upstaged Korea's Sung Ji Hyun to reach the semi-finals but it was curtains for P V Sindhu in the women's singles of the India Open Super Series, in New Delhi, on Friday.
The Indian ace beat Soratja Chansrisukot of Thailand at the Hong Open badminton championships.
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.
In an interview with PTI, the Hyderabadi also reveals why she parted ways with the former All England champion and throws light on the Padma controversy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday congratulated badminton sensation Saina Nehwal for winning the Indonesian Open Super Series at Jakarta, her third international title on a row.
Star India shuttler Saina Nehwal has signed a two-year deal with leading sports management group, IOS Sports & Entertainment. IOS will now manage Saina's endorsements, appearances, brand profiling, patents, licensing and digital rights, images and visibility on social networking sites.
Saina Nehwal beat Ai Goto to become the first Indian woman to reach the final in a four-star event in badminton
Newly-crowned Korea Open champion P V Sindhu dished out another splendid performance edging past Japan's Minatsu Mitani for the second time in as many weeks to reach the second round of the women's singles at the Japan Open Super Series, in Tokyo, on Wednesday.
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