If Sindhu and Saina win their respective second round matches, they will face each other in the quarter-finals.
Japan beat China 3-1 in the final of the women's team event to secure the country's first badminton gold medal at an Asian Games since 1998.
World No 2 Carolina Marin of Spain also figures in her same group and Sindhu will have task cut out when she faces the Spaniard on Friday.
Chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Monday singled out world number one doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as favourites for an Olympic medal and said two-time medallist PV Sindhu too is on the right path and can deliver once again at the Paris Games.
China, who have yet to lose a single badminton match to another nation at the Tokyo Olympics, won gold and silver in mixed doubles on Friday after Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping beat favourites Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong 21-17, 17-21, 21-19.
Three Indians will feature in the semi-finals of the French Open Super Series badminton tournament after Kidambi Srikanth, H S Prannoy and P V Sindhu won their quarter-final matches in Paris on Friday.
India's double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu showed great determination to outwit Japan's Aya Ohori in the women's singles opening round, while B Sai Praneeth and Kidmabi Srikanth also advanced to the men's singles second round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event, in Bali, on Wednesday.
India's Tokyo Paralympics gold winner Pramod Bhagat was on Thursday named among six shuttlers for the Male Para Badminton Player of the Year by the sport's world body but none of his compatriots featured in the able-bodied awards' categories.
Kidambi Srikanth staged a magnificent comeback to beat five-time World champion Lin Dan of China 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 and enter the men's singles quarter-finals at the Denmark Open on Thursday night. The No.6-ranked Indian ace will meet compatriot Sameer Verma on Friday.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu made a winning start to her maiden campaign at the prestigious BWF World Super Series Final, defeating higher-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in an entertaining opening women's singles Group B match in Dubai on Thursday. Sindhu, who recently clinched the China Super Series Premier and reached the finals at Hong Kong Open, eked out a 12-21 21-8 21-15 win over World No. 8 Yamaguchi in an exciting clash which lasted little over an hour. In the opening game, Sindhu conceded a 3-6 lead early on as she faltered with her strokes even as Yamaguchi grabbed points with her deception and riding on her rival's mistakes to go 11-5 up at the break.
Sindhu, who had finished runner-up at the last edition in Dubai, dished out a superb game, mixing with patience with aggression, to edging the Japanese 24-22, 21-15.
Sindhu lost 7-21, 11-21 to World No. 3 Okuhara in a lop-sided contest.
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.
Sindhu went down 15-21, 16-21 to the fourth seed
Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round of the China Open Super Series after suffering straight game defeats in their respective events.
In a men's singles quarter-final match earlier in the day, Sameer Verma too was shown the door after he suffered a 10-21, 12-21 loss to second seed Shi Yuqi of China.
Set to return after an injury-induced break, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu is aware the road to Paris will be "challenging" and she needs to be "smarter" in her pursuit of coveted gold medal in the French capital.
Star Indian shuttler P V Sindhu cruised into the quarter-finals of the All England Championships women's singles with a straight-game win over Sung Ji Hyun of Korea, in Birmingham, on Thursday.Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen was knocked out after losing in straight games to Victor Axelsen.
Star shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched straight-game victories to progress to the quarter-finals, but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal in the US $700,000 Malaysia Open World Tour Super 750 tournament, at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur, on Thursday.
The Indian women's badminton team crashed out of the Uber Cup after losing to Japan in the quarter-finals in Aarhus, Denmark on Thursday while the men completed their group engagements in the Thomas Cup with a defeat to China.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Super Series Premier tournament with a comfortable straight-game win over local favourite Fitriani Fitriani in the women's singles event in Jakarta on Thursday.
India's Lakshya Sen on Thursday progressed to the quarter-finals of the All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham, while HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round.
Sindhu, who had finished runners-up at the last edition in Dubai, will have a tough task at hand as she has been clubbed with defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and USAs' Beiwen Zhang in Group A.
Two-time defending champion P V Sindhu remained on course for retaining her title as she reached the semi-finals with a hard-fought three-game win over China's Chen Yufei at the $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold tournament in Macau on Friday.
P V Sindhu stormed into the quarter-finals of the women's singles badminton at the Olympics with an easy 21-15, 21-13 victory over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in Tokyo on Thursday.
Leverdez, the world number 31, scored only his second win over Lee in nine matches and said playing without fear helped him in the 75-minute contest at the Emirates Arena.
Fresh from their Korea Open triumph, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to continue their dream run.
The 2021 All England Open will be the second tournament this year to offer ranking points to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, after the Swiss Open.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad lost her momentum after that incident, losing 21-13, 19-21, 16-21 to eventually sign off with a bronze medal, her second in the continental individual championship.
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.
Kidambi Srikanth scored a stunning straight-games victory over world No. 4 Lee Zii Jia but Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Osaka, on Wednesday.
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.
P V Sindhu said she has a strategy in place to outwit the World No. 1 in Tuesday's singles final at the Asian Games final in Jakarta.
Neeraj's gold and three other athletics silver medals, along with Saina Nehwal's badminton singles bronze, propelled India's overall medal count to 41 (8 gold, 13 silver, and 20 bronze).
Srikanth held a 4-1 record over Prannoy coming into this match, but the shuttler was unable to deliver. Srikanth won the first game 21-13, but Prannoy won the second set comprehensively.
Sindhu goes down fighting in All England semisSindhu goes down fighting in All England semis
In sizzling form after clinching the China Open and finishing runners-up at Hong Kong, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will look to sign off the year with another crown when she competes in the season-ending World Superseries Finals starting in Dubai from Wednesday. In Rio de Janeiro, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win an Olympics silver medal in August, but qualifying for the Dubai World Super Series final still was a far cry as she was placed at 16th in the Destination Dubai Rankings with just two events -- China Open and Hong Kong Open -- remaining.
Srikanth made an attacking start after the change of ends, putting his smashes to good use, to lead 5-1. Two tight smashes on either side helped the Indian to maintain his lead to 8-3 before he entered the break with a healthy seven-point advantage when Axelsen went to the net.
The Tokyo Olympics produced many, many, many emotional moments for the athletes and their coaches...
A look at the country's athletes' showing at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, July 30.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances