Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth's woeful run continued as they suffered first round exits
A sensational run over the last two weeks has given wings to Ashwini Ponnappa's Olympics dreams, and the ace Indian shuttler now wants to continue her fine run in the upcoming bigger tournaments to stay on course for a trip to Paris.
Sindhu took 38 minutes to prevail over her recent nemesis from Indonesia 21-19, 21-15
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who hasn't played any tournament since the Birmingham Games due to an ankle injury, is now world number five after moving up a spot.
President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday congratulated the Indian badminton mixed team for clinching silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Prannoy will take on Rajawat in the second round.
Rankireddy and Shetty, who had arrived in Madrid after winning the Swiss Open Super 300 last week, retired from their first-round match
In other India-related results, it was curtains for Ashmita Chaliha, who lost 17-21, 16-21 to Indonesia's world no. 7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in 35 minutes. Both teams had received a bye in their opening match.
The 14-year-old Unnati pipped Malvika 24-22, 24-22 in a nail-biting 50-minute semifinal clash
The other men's singles semi-final match on Saturday will be played between Priyanshu Rajawat and Kaushal Dharmamer.
Indian women beat Thailand 3-2 in final, clinch historic gold in Badminton Asia Team Championships
A former world no. 2, Sindhu has regained her place in the top 5 after three years. The former world champion from Hyderabad resumed her training on Monday after recovering from the injury.
Top Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss to seventh seeded English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 17-21, 14-21 in a last-8 match.
Sindhu is the only Indian to feature in the women's singles competition.
Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian at number seven while former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth gained a rung to the 11th position.
With the main draw of the Asian Badminton Championships set to get underway from Wednesday, the struggling Indian shuttlers face an uphill task.
Indian women's badminton star Saina Nehwal crashed out of the women's singles competition in the first round after a loss to China's Zhang Yiman. She lost the match 17-21, 21-19,11-21. After being a game down, Nehwal made a comeback in the second game but lost the final one.
Srikanth got his act together in the nick of time and reeled off eight straight points to move to a 16-10 lead before keeping his calm to take the match to the decider.
Satwik has been working with sport & performance psychologist Shree Advani
This is the third time this year that Sindhu has been knocked out in the first round of the tournaments she's played.
India's fancied shuttlers didn't break a sweat on way to completing a 5-0 sweep of Pakistan in their mixed team campaign opener at the 22nd Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday.
The core of the team remains the same with HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in good form and the Indian team would hope the rub of the green also goes their way when it begins campaign on Thursday.
The Indian men's team will face Chinese Taipei in group C of Thomas Cup Final later in the day.
Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to arrest their slump in form when they begin their campaign at the Australia Open badminton tournament in Sydney on Tuesday.
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.
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu rallied from a game down to eke out a hard-fought win over Thailand's Supanida Katethong and enter the semi-finals of the Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament, in Lucknow, on Friday.
Sindhu expectedly faced no resistance from Uganda's Husina Kobugabe, winning 21-10, 21-9 in her pre-quarterfinal match.
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.
Fresh from their Korea Open triumph, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to continue their dream run.
World Championships bronze medallist Sen had earlier advanced to the men's singles semi-finals after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China gave a walkover.
Saina Nehwal produced a fine performance to kick-off her BWF World Championships campaign with a straight game win over Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi.
In the women's doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won 21-18, 21-19 against the Dutch duo of Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen. Treesa and Gayatri face Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching in the quarter-finals.
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal, while Laskhya Sen entered his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth will meet compatriot HS Prannoy in his opening match, while former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap will square off against a qualifier.
If Sindhu and Saina win their respective second round matches, they will face each other in the quarter-finals.
H S Prannoy dished out another splendid show to progress to the quarter-finals with a thrilling win over Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo.
India's HS Prannoy showed nerves of steel, advancing to his third successive quarterfinals at the World Championships.
Unnati won 21-18, 21-11 to be crowned the Odisha Open champion for the first time.
None of the other three quarters boast of such a strong star cast but there would be a few mouth-watering opening round clashes to look forward to.
Tasnim Mir, who earlier this month became the first Indian to claim world number one status in the U-19 category, beat Keyura Mopati 13-21, 21-14, 21-19 to set up a second round clash against Malvika Bansod.
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