Lakshya Sen is aware that his Olympic qualification is still in choppy waters but said he has been working on his "variations" and "deceptions" during the off-season to regain his world's top-10 position and seal his Paris Games berth.
Sankar's father Subramanian encouraged him to drop out of the schooling system at an early age and pushed him to play in the upper age groups and senior circuits.
PV Sindhu finally fetched India its first ever World Championships gold in the sport but spent rest of the year struggling for form.
P V Sindhu won the ESPN's 'Female Sportsperson of the Year' award while young shooter Saurabh Chaudhary bagged the honour in the male category.
Shami was there to receive the honours. He took 24 wickets in seven World Cup games last year.
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.
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.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Madhya Pradesh's Aditya Joshi has become the first male junior badminton player from India to be ranked world No 1. Harshal Dani is another Indian who, at No 8, figures in the top ten of the junior rankings.
Insurance companies are going all out to grab eyeballs.
The 16-year-old from Gujarat was rewarded for last year's stellar run, which saw her win titles in three junior international tournaments. It enabled her rise three places and take the top position in the BWF junior rankings.
Top Indian shuttlers, including world champion P V Sindhu, will be able to hit the courts from July 1 if the Telangana government allows the Badminton Association of India (BAI) to organise a national camp in Hyderabad. With COVID-19 cases surging in Hyderabad, the Telangana government, as a precautionary measure, extended the lockdown till June 30 but it meant the resumption of the sport got further delayed for the top players in the state.
Former World champion P V Sindhu needed 36 minutes to get the better of the 21-year-old Chaliha 21-7, 21-18 and set up a last-four meeting with Thailand's Supanida Katethong.
India witnessed another fruitful day at the Canada Open as all its shuttlers, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, entered the third round of the $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary, Canada.
Prannoy took to Twitter to express his displeasure.
Playing an international tournament after almost a year, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt clinched the men's singles title at the Bulgarian International Future Series tournament on Sunday. Gurusaidutt, who was out of action since the US Open in July 2016 due to an injury, defeated Muhammed Ali Kurt 21-17, 21-16 in 35 minutes.
'When we are playing at our best, it's very difficult to beat us.'
The Sports Ministry is set to establish 1000 Khelo India Centres (KIC) at the district level across the country with the help of sporting champions, who will be remunerated for providing their expertise. The centres will either be run by a past champion or have them as a coach.
PM Modi met in person and interacted with the badminton squad
India has huge expectations from these champions. Rediff.com's Laxmi Negi and Norma Godinho glance at their chances at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and newly-crowned world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the final in women's and men's singles badminton respectively at the 21st Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
An important factor in India's stupendous success in 2021 was the way the government opened its coffers to support athletes.
Having beaten two-time Olympic gold medallist Lin Dan to clinch the China Open title, India's latest badminton star K Srikanth said he is now confident of doing well in the future.
India's mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy reached the second round but it was curtains for men's singles shuttlers at the Singapore Super Series, on Wednesday.
It is the surprise element of the unheralded shutters, who could pose a bigger threat to his medal aspirations at next month's Commonwealth Games.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday.
It was another good year for PV Sindhu, who won the India Open Super Series and Korea Open Super Series titles, besides bagging the silver at Glasgow World Championship and finishing as runners-up at Hong Kong Open last month.
P V Sindhu cemented her position as a dominant force on the world stage with an Olympic silver medal while Saina Nehwal continued to battle with injuries in a year, which saw Indian badminton take giant strides at the global platform. It turned out to be a watershed year for Sindhu, who reached the upper echelons of world badminton with a silver medal at Rio Games -- an achievement also for her mentor and chief coach Pullela Gopichand, who became the only Indian coach to produce two Olympic medallists. On the other hand, for the first part of the year, it was Saina's battle with injuries which dominated the headlines even though she was considered to be the best bet for India at Rio. The Indian ace fought against time to recover from an Achilles tendons and went on to win the Australian Super Series.
Vijayveer Sidhu, 16, shot a gold in the 25m standard pistol event for junior men after combining with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu and Adarsh Singh to claim the team gold on the last day of the ISSF World Championships.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
As the curtains come down at the Tokyo Olympics, here's a glance at the medallists and those who came within touching distance of glory.
What a year Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh and Anirban Lahiri had!
'Experience is important. But if you work hard, you can improve faster. There is a three-month gap now and we will look to train harder and improve our fitness for Olympics' 'I think we need to cut down simple errors on court and not give away easy points. We have got to work hard each day without thinking about the results, as giving our best is in our hands'
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Gopichand also wondered to why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar 'never had anything positive to say about him'.
Manika Batra, who has become toast of the nation after her sensational run at the Gold Coast Games, is hoping that she has done enough to spark a table tennis revolution in India like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu did for badminton.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Iran ended seven-time champions India's unchallenged kabaddi domination in the Asian Games since the sport was first introduced in 1990.
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