The Indian challenge at the Australian Open Super Series badminton ended as Saina Nehwal was sent packing by China's Shixian Wang in the women's singles quarter-finals, in Sydney, on Friday. The world No 1 was beaten by the two-time All England champion and fifth seed 15-21, 13-21 in 41 minutes.
India's chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Friday admitted that it was tough for him to manage two of his illustrious wards Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu together, saying he could never pick a favourite between the two. Gopichand said he always saw the duo as his kids and felt bitter when Saina left his academy to join Prakash Padukone's academy.
Two-time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei suffered his second successive loss in a crucial Trump match at the Premier Badminton League (PBL) as Delhi Acers notched up a thrilling 4-1 win over Hyderabad Hunters at the Siri Fort Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.
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.
Gopichand also wondered to why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar 'never had anything positive to say about him'.
Home Minister P Chidambaram stood in queue, purchased a ticket from the counter and watched the finals of the World Badminton championship from the spectators gallery on Sunday to send a symbolic message after England pulled out citing security reasons following alleged terror threat to the event.
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.
Danish third seed Peter Gade started with an easy win but Chinese 11th seed Bao Chunlai was upstaged in the first round of the world badminton championships which began under tight security on Monday.
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.
After losing seven successive finals, PV Sindhu finally redeemed herself with the gold medal at the World Tour Finals.
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.
The Indian badminton ace says there should be some stabilization to help players making a comeback from injury.
Tennis star Leander Paes and badminton player-turned-coach Pullela Gopichand were selected for the prestigious Padma Bhushan awards while cricketer Yuvraj Singh was among the seven sportspersons chosen for this year's Padma Shri award.
Chetan Anand, Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Nikhil Kanetkar advanced to the second round of the All England Open Badminton tournament.
The Indian ace was beaten by fourth seeded Mohammed Hafix Hashim of Malaysia in the quarter-finals at the Danish Open.
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.
Olympic champion Lin Dan on Sunday became the first badminton player to clinch a hat-trick of world titles, beating fellow Chinese Chen Jin in straight games in the finals of the mega-event at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad.
Indian shuttler Chetan Anand continued his rampaging form and thumped England's Carl Baxter in straight games to clinch the Czech International badminton title on Sunday. The reigning National champion defeated Baxter 21-15, 21-14 in a lopsided final that lasted just 26 minutes.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
His repeated requests for rehabilitation ignored, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Parupalli Kashyap is flummoxed after being sent air tickets to join the Indian badminton squad at the South Asian Games despite being laid low by an abdominal strain.
Saina was awarded a cheque of Rs 25 lakhs for her title-winning performance at the Australia Super Series in 2016, besides becoming the first Indian to become the World No. 1 and reaching the finals at All England champion in 2015.
P V Sindhu hoped to regain peak fitness before the start of individual events and assured India will return with multiple medals.
India's men singles shuttler B Sai Praneeth alongwith two other doubles pairs advanced to the semi-finals of the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament.
The World No 25 pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag put a gallant fight in the second game but couldn't stop the two-time All England Champions from Indonesia, going down 12-21, 24-26 in a 42-minute match.
The former Indian badminton ace upheld the BAI's decision to make it mandatory for players to participate in the ongoing national camp.
P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run at the Malaysia Open, progressing to the semi-finals of the women's and men's singles competition with a straight-game wins in the US$ 700,000 world tour super 750 tournament, in Kuala Lumpur.
Indian shuttlers Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Siril Verma notched up contrasting victories to reach the semifinals of the women's and men's singles events at the Russian Open Grand Prix, in Vladivostok, on Friday.
Last year, Nikhil Kamath and his brother Nithin jettisoned into a club of the country's 100 wealthiest with their net worth pegged at around Rs 24,000 crore
India's Chetan Anand scored an easy straight-game victory over Andrew Smith of England to cruise into men's singles final of Yonex Sunrise India Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Hyderabad on Saturday. The unseeded Indian did short work of his English opponent 21-16 21-9 in the semi-final to set up a summit clash against Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand on Sunday.
From TC to Cricket Legend, what an incredible journey Mahi has had!
India's Chetan Anand downed Yu Chen of China in straight games to storm into the men's semifinals of the Yonex Sunrise India Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Hyderabad on Friday.
India's number one singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat Jay Clarke of Great Britain in straight sets to enter the main draw of the Miami Open, on Wednesday.
Denmark's Mathias Boe is extremely annoyed. And in his anger this shuttler from Denmark has vowed to not visit India after appearing in Thomas Cup next year.
Awadhe Warriors brother-sister pair of Markis Kido and Pia Bernadeth held their nerves in a close encounter to win the crucial fifth match and the tie 3-2 against Mumbai Masters in the second semi-final to set up the summit clash with Hyderabad Hotshots in the Indian Badminton League on Thursday.
Taufik Hidayat's hopes of retaining his world badminton title evaporated when he lost to China's Chen Hong.
But Chatan Anand crashed out in the first round at the All England badminton championships.
Saina Nehwal was the lone Indian left in the Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament after a hard-fought victory over China's Sun Yu in Sydney on Thursday. The world No 1 overcame a stiff challenge from Yu, ranked No 9, winning 21-19, 19-21, 21-14 in 78 minutes.
But Pullela Gopichand, Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhat and Abhinn Shyam Gupta were shown.
The 16-year-old Indian ace beat Sachiyo Imai of Japan to make the grade at the Philippines Open badminton championships.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances