Former All England champion Prakash Padukone tipped PV Sindhu to be the world number one in the near future, but Saina Nehwal's coach Vimal Kumar was of the view that both the Olympic medallists could dominate world badminton in the next 5-7 years. While Saina became the first Indian shuttler to win an Olympic medal - a bronze - at 2012 London Olympics, Sindhu did one better by winning a historic silver at the Rio Games this year. "Definitely, Sindhu is capable of reaching the number one place," Padukone told reporters at the Olympic Gold Quest workshop for junior athletes in Bengaluru.
National coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday defended Indian Badminton League's decision to reduce the base price of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa before the IBL Players' auction, saying it was done so that the doubles specialists do not incur financial loss.
Here are some highlights -- in pictures -- from Day 2 of the events at Gold Coast...
Two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China is all set to make his debut at the fifth edition of the Yonex Sunrise India Open Superseries badminton tournament, scheduled to be held at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here from March 24 to 29.
Check out India's schedule on Day 1 of Commonwealth Games.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Memories of a path-breaking gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games are still fresh in her mind as Saina Nehwal embarks on a quest to regain the title at the Gold Coast Games starting next week.
Speaking at his first news conference since his diagnosis in September, the Malaysian three-time Olympic silver medallist said he has no intention of retiring.
Age-fudging has been a big problem in Indian sports
Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu will be the cynosure of all eyes when the seventh India Super Series badminton tournament gets underway with the qualifiers in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu will learn from her mistakes and perform better in future, her father P V Ramana said on Saturday. "(Sindhu's opponent) Carolina Marin has played an excellent game and she truly deserves the championship. "However we assure you under the guidance of her coach (P Gopichand) in the coming years, Sindhu will definitely perform well and keep the hopes of the all the Indians high," Ramana told reporters with a hint of disappointment after the watching the match at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.
Sindhu has fallen in the early stages at all tournaments except the French Open since winning her maiden World Championship title in August.
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
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.
'Deepika always got all the jobs she auditioned for.' 'There was really no stopping her.'
India's top shuttlers have missed his court-side presence this year but national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand says he can't really help cutting down on travelling as that would come in the way of finding the next crop of world-beaters.
Taking the Indian challenge forward, P V Sindhu progressed to the women's singles quarter-finals after a tough win over Yu Po Pai in the USD 120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Basel on Thursday. Sindhu overcame the challenge of the Taipei shuttler 21- 16 21-16 in the second round. However, B Sai Parineeth, who had eked out a memorable win over legendary Lee Chong Wei at the All England championship, made an exit from the event after losing 19-21 6-21 to second seed Tien Chen Chou from Taipei in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals.
'If we have one dedicated coach to train 50-100 coaches who can go back and coach their wards, that will be a very good move'
Reader Lalit Kumar Dubey sent us this picture from Denmark.
The Padukones watch the proceedings from the Royal Box on Centre Court in Wimbledon.
Legendary Prakash Padukone was revered as the world number one player during his hey days before the modern day computerised ranking system was introduced.
Spearheaded by Malaysian world No 1 Lee Chong Wei, Mumbai Masters took a winning 3-1 lead over Delhi Smashers in the Indian Badminton League match at the NSCI courts, in Mumbai, on Tuesday night.
Misfiring Rafael Nadal crashed out of the Barcelona Open on Friday at the hands of fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro who avenged last year's final defeat by winning their quarter-final 2-6, 7-6 (7-5,) 6-4.
Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram notched up the biggest triumph of his career by clinching $50,000 Yonex Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Almere.
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.
Ace shuttler PV Sindhu, the first Indian woman to bag a silver medal at the Olympics, is the latest athlete whose story is set to be portrayed at the big screen.
Carolina Marin broke Indian hearts as the World No.1 beat second seed Saina Nehwal in straight game to lift the World Championships title in Jakarta.
Two-time champion Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy progressed to the quarter-finals after straight-game victories in the women's and men's singles respectively at the $ 120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Basel.
Prakash Padukone backed Sindhu to win the World Championship crown soon after two consecutive silver medal performances in the prestigious event.
London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal regained second place while Parupalli Kashyap continued his upward progress, earning two places to reach seventh in the latest world badminton rankings, on Thursday.
40 must know nuggets about the legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The ace Indian shuttler beat former England No 1 Amir Ghaffar 21-18, 21-14 in the final.
Her frequent losses in the finals and the accompanying criticism does not affect ace shuttler PV Sindhu, who, on Saturday, said playing in the summit showdown of a tournament itself is 'a big achievement'.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal entered the pre-quarterfinals but it turned out to be a disastrous day for the men with all of them, including reigning champion K Srikanth, failing to cross the opening hurdle at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super Series badminton.
Nostalgia and anecdotes, given to us by cricket's great writers, do much greater justice to the game.
'We actually have a big vacuum in terms of producing coaches of quality and it's not a training program. It's an ecosystem issue. So, we need to work harder to bridge that gap'
World Badminton Championships silver medallist Saina Nehwal feels her decision to shift base to Bangalore and train under Vimal Kumar turned out to be a masterstroke.
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.
Two-time defending champion Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Sunday. She was shocked by a lower-ranked Shixian Wang of China in the women's singles semi-final. The top seeded Indian ace fought hard before losing 11-21, 21-10, 9-21 to the fourth-seeded Chinese in a battle that lasted 50 minutes.
Star shuttler Saina Nehwal lit up another gloomy day for India at the Olympic Games by storming her way into the women's singles semi-finals while shooting medal hope Ronjan Sodhi fell by the wayside on Thursday.
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