One of the strong medal hopefuls from badminton at the upcoming Olympics, PV Sindhu said she wants to break into the top 7 in world ranking before the Rio Games in August.
Legendary Prakash Padukone was revered as the world number one player during his hey days before the modern day computerised ranking system was introduced.
The Indian badminton ace says there should be some stabilization to help players making a comeback from injury.
World champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Chinese Taipei's No 1 shuttler Tai Tzu Ying will be up for grabs when the high-profile Players' Auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League gets underway in Hyderabad on Monday.
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad will begin her campaign against China's Li Xuerui, a former Olympic gold medallist and World No 1.
Back in action after recovering from a knee injury, star shuttler Saina Nehwal says she needs good match practice to be at her best in the prestigious All England Championship in March. "I am happy with my improvement. My movements are still sluggish. I still need good match practice," she told reporters here late last night after losing to top-ranked shuttler Carolina Marin in a Premier Badminton League (PBL) match. Saina had sustained an intra-articular injury (inside the joint) in her right knee and had lost in the group stage in the Rio Olympics. She later underwent a surgery and was on rehab.
Badminton teen sensation P V Sindhu improved one more place to close the gap with ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal in the latest world ranking released in Kuala Lumpur.
World champion Zhu Lin will not be able to defend her title in India this August after being left out of the China squad for the badminton World Championships, local media reported on Tuesday. Olympic silver medallist and former world champion Xie Xingfang will lead China's team for the women's singles, which also includes All England champion Wang Yihan, China's highest ranked player Wang Lin and Lu Lan.
After losing seven successive finals, PV Sindhu finally redeemed herself with the gold medal at the World Tour Finals.
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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
P V Sindhu hoped to regain peak fitness before the start of individual events and assured India will return with multiple medals.
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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal feels that year 2015 is one of the best of her career but rued that a series of injuries affected her chances of winning more titles.
He is known to be a demanding coach but Pullela Gopichand is of the opinion that Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu's odd defeats can't be termed as her failure, not even by a single per cent.
At 17 and 20 respectively, Satwik and Chirag form a formidable pair that has proved its mettle in international badminton, often punching above their weight, only to fall short of podium finishes.
'I'm least bothered about the rankings of Kashyap or Srikanth. I want to make it on my own by winning titles.'
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
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Rio Games silver medalist P V Sindhu says her performance at the Olympics has helped her to deal with failures and she realises now that she needs to work harder to win medals at big-ticket events like the World Championship and All England.
While praising the depth in the Indian men's ranks and expecting it to last for the next 10 years, badminton legend Prakash Padukone lamented that the women's side did not possess the same depth in class after world no. 2 Saina Nehwal and no. 12 P V Sindhu.
India's ace shullter Saina Nehwal put up a strong fight but went down 13-21, 21-13, 6-21 to World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying in Denmark Open final on Sunday.
Age-fudging has been a big problem in Indian sports
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is the first Indian woman to achieve the World No 1 ranking.
Indian ace Saina Nehwal's ascent to the top of women's badminton was officially confirmed.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
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.
A 'chance meeting' with Pullela Gopichand near an auditorium lift was enough for Manasi Joshi to convince the national coach of her burning desire to become a world champion.
Women dominated this year's Padma awards for sports with tennis star Sania Mirza and ace shuttler Saina Nehwal getting the nod for the Padma Bhushan, while archer Deepika Kumari was chosen for the Padma Shri in New Delhi, on Monday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Ace shuttler Pulella Gopichand looks forward to a good season after recovering from injury.
In a bid to keep herself fit for the packed international schedule this year, Indian shuttler P V Sindhu will not be defending her women's singles title at the $120,000 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament to be held at Johor Bahru from March 25-30.
India's P V Sindhu took a firm step in her quest for Olympic gold in the women's singles badminton, easily disposing off the challenge from Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the women's singles badminton quarter-final in Tokyo, on Friday, July 30, 2021.
Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal celebrated her No 1 ranking by beating Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon to clinch the India Open $275,000 Yonex Sunrise Super series event at the Siri Fort sports complex in New Delhi on Sunday.
Gopichand also wondered to why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar 'never had anything positive to say about him'.
India's men singles shuttler B Sai Praneeth alongwith two other doubles pairs advanced to the semi-finals of the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament.
P V Sindhu became the first Indian shuttler to reach the final at the Olympics when she shocked Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in straight games in the women's singles at the Rio Games on Thursday. The two-time World Championships bronze medallist scored a sensational 21-19, 21-10 victory over the All England champion in 49 minutes.
