Legendary Prakash Padukone was revered as the world number one player during his hey days before the modern day computerised ranking system was introduced.
Two-time bronze medallist, P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth started their campaign at the World Badminton Champion with contrasting victories in the women's and men's singles competition respectively in Jakarta.
Around four lakh people who attended the event were treated to a spectacular flying display of fighter, civilian aircraft and helicopters.
P V Sindhu stormed into the quarter-finals, while Parupalli Kashyap and K Srikanth also advanced to the last eight stage after posting contrasting victories in the Denmark Open Super Series Badminton Premier, in Odense.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that a combination of proper infrastructure and guidance along with passion can help India in becoming a 'sporting nation'.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal rallied from a game down to beat Sayaka Takahashi of Japan 14-21, 21-18, 21-12 and enter the quarter-finals of the women's singles at the World Badminton Championships, in Copenhagen, on Thursday. The world No. 7, seeded seventh in the tournament, will take on World No. 1 Li Xuerui of China next.
The first Indian woman grappler to win an Olympic medal, a bronze in the 58kg freestyle at Rio, she was the obvious choice as P V Sindhu, India's only other medallist, who bagged a silver in the women's singles badminton, left for Hyderabad on Saturday.
The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
Indian teen sensation P V Sindhu made sure of a second consecutive bronze medal at the World Badminton Championships, but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal after she was beaten in straight games in the women's singles quarter-finals at the Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen on Friday.
The Indian Badminton League will hold its first players' auction in Delhi on July 19. Over 150 shuttlers are expected to go under the hammer for 66 slots in six teams. Each franchisee can have 11 players, including a maximum of four foreign and an under-19 player from their catchment area.
Led by young flag-bearer Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the athletes, clad in blue suits, waved to the crowd with small flags in their hands.
Prakash Padukone backed Sindhu to win the World Championship crown soon after two consecutive silver medal performances in the prestigious event.
India's 572 athletes hope to return home with an overflowing treasure chest of medals.
P V Sindhu breezed into the summit clash of the World Tour Finals for the second successive time after prevailing over 2013 World champion Ratchanok Intanon in a tense semi-final.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu continued her unbeaten run while debutant Sameer Verma also qualified for the knockout stage with a straight-game win in his last Group B match at the BWF World Tour Finals.
'I have grown up in an environment where the dominant narrative of Indian sporting achievement was -- We can't.' 'These achievers have fought hard, built on each other's body of work and knowledge, and have today changed the script to -- We can,' notes Rahul Dravid,cricketing legend.
Ecstatic after clinching her maiden Super Series Premier title at China Open, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu said she was left speechless with emotions as she has finally realised a long-time dream.
"Sometimes, these small things affect a long match where you need extra energy," Gopichand said on Tuesday.
Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu and Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarter-finals after registering thrilling three-game wins over their respective opponents in the second round of the China Super Series Premier, in Fuzhou, on Thursday.
The reigning Olympic silver medallist took just 36 minutes to record her 2nd win in the competition.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal inched closer to retaining her women's singles title, while other top Indian shuttlers, including P V Sindhu, also made it to the semi-finals of the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament.
Gopichand, who shaped Sindhu and Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal among others, believes it will take some time for the next big star to emerge.
Set to return to the international circuit at Denmark Open, India ace shuttler P V Sindhu, on Friday, said winning the silver medal at Rio Olympics has given her a lot of confidence and she would look to play without any pressure in the upcoming events.
A much-anticipated second round meeting of India's top two women shuttlers, world No 1 Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu, failed to materiliaze as the latter came a cropper in her opening match at the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament, in Tokyo, on Wednesday.
Still grappling with a knee injury, Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning shuttler P Kashyap's chances of qualifying for the Olympics have all but ended as he has been forced to withdraw from this month's Malaysia Super Series Premier and Singapore Open.
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu on Saturday accused an Indigo ground staff of misbehaving with her while travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai, even as the airline rejected the celebrated shuttler's allegations.
World champion P V Sindhu was on Friday ousted from the All England Championship after being outplayed by a determined Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who rallied her way to a thrilling three-game win in the quarter-final of the women's singles in Birmingham. Sindhu's defeat ended India's campaign at the Super 1000 tournament.
Sporting fraternity hails Sindhu's historic World C'ships gold
Kidambi Srikanth continued his fine form to enter the men's singles semi-finals but Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu bowed out of the Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament in Sydney, on Friday.
Speaking at a felicitation function for the Commonwealth Games medal winners in New Delhi, Rathore said there was no dearth of money in Indian sports but the funds will have to be used for justified purposes by both the athletes as well as the federations.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals but a heartbreak was in store for P V Sindhu, who suffered a shock defeat to Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round of the $120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Lucknow, on Thursday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
P V Sindhu and K Srikanth have been given the top billing in the respective women's and men's singles badminton competitions of the Commonwealth Games
P V Sindhu hoped to regain peak fitness before the start of individual events and assured India will return with multiple medals.
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.
The abundance of talent is complemented by a confident approach which the likes of Manu Bhaker, Mehuli Ghosh, Anish Bhanwala and Anjum Moudgil will display at the Games.
Five years into retirement, the little master is the third highest paid sports endorser. How did he script his return to relevance?
Saina will next face either Thailand's fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon or Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Sindhu will take on the winner of the match between Sri Lanka's Kavidi Sirimannage and Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol.
Indian racer Arjun Maini made a strong start to his highly-anticipated debut in the European LeMans Series, recording the second fastest laptime in the qualifying session of the race.
