India's leading shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the All-England badminton championships, losing to China's Li Xuerui in the quarter-finals in Birmingham on Friday.
Muhammad Hafiz Hashim caused one of the biggest upsets in the 104-year history of the All-England championships when he upset the top-seeded titleholder Chen Hong to win the men's singles title.
Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Chetan Anand, Nikhil Kanetkar and Aparna lost in the first round.
This year's All-England Championships is likely to mark the final appearance of five-time champion Lin Dan at the sport's oldest event, as the garlanded Chinese player bids for a berth at the Rio Olympics before a possible retirement.
Eight seeded Saina defetaed Okuhara 21-15, 21-14 late last night to improve her head-to-head record to 6-1 against her Japanese opponent.
Women's world number one Wang Yihan suffered a stunning loss on Sunday in the final of the All England badminton championships, beaten 21-13, 21-19 by seventh-seeded Chinese compatriot Li Xuerui.
India's Saina Nehwal thrashed Olympic silver medallist Yihan Wang of China to storm into the semi-finals of the All England badminton championships in Birmingham.
Lin Dan of China won his fifth All England title on Sunday when world number one Lee Chong Wei had to retire with a shoulder injury that had emerged over the last 24 hours.
India's campaign came to a premature halt in the All-England Badminton Championship when ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was thrashed by Chinese Shixian Wang in the quarter-finals of the women's singles in Birmingham on Friday.
Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George won their respective men's singles round-of 16 matches to advance to the quarterfinals late on Thursday night.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will return to Great Britain with a renewed hope of clinching the prestigious All England title but a tough draw awaits her in the women's singles of the Super Series Premier event, which starts with the qualifiers in Birmingham on Tuesday.
Saina Nehwal went down fighting to third seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong 21-17, 13-21, 16-21.
He was clearly disappointed to miss out the Indian Open title, but star Indian shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy on Sunday said "losing is better than winning always" and hoped the defeat in the final will spur him and his doubles partner Chirag Shetty to win a bigger crown in coming days.
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.
Sindhu goes down fighting in All England semisSindhu goes down fighting in All England semis
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal survived a scare from lower-ranked Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand before reaching the second round of the All England Championship in Birmingham.
However, Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat went through the qualifying round at Birmingham on Tuesday.
Seasoned Indian ace Saina Nehwal and the fast-rising H S Prannoy notched up contrasting wins in the women's and men's singles competition respectively to reach the All England badminton championships' second round at Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.
London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal scripted history by reaching the finals of the prestigious All England Badminton Championship with a straight-game victory over Sun Yu of China in the women's singles competition in Birmingham.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu progressed to the quarter-finals of the All England Championship with a hard-fought win over Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in women's singles, in Birmingham.
After Canada Open triumph, Sen jumps 7 places to be at 12th spot in world rankings
He also called upon the government and other stakeholders to streamline the processes where an athlete could just concentrate on his training and performance without having to bother about other issues.
Fast bowler Jofra Archer will, however, go through a second COVID-19 test and will join England's behind-closed-doors training camp on Thursday, provided he tests negative.
World champion Chen Jin of China exited the All England badminton championships on Thursday when he was beaten 21-18, 22-20 in the second round by unseeded German Marc Zwiebler.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal on Wednesday made a positive start to her campaign at the All England Championship by notching up a difficult three-game victory over Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand to reach the pre-quarter-finals.
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.
Vaughan wants England management to take inspiration from Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
A decade after his triumph at the All England badminton championship, Gopichand cherishes the famous victory, writes Bikash Mohapatra.
Three-time champion Lee Chong Wei was sensationally beaten by India's B Sai Praneeth in the first round of the All-England Championships on Wednesday, putting a firm dent into his preparations ahead of the Rio Olympics . The Malaysian second seed was beaten 24-22 22-20, which ended a promising few months where he had won his last four events. "I can't believe I lost in the first round," Lee told reporters. "I had pressure to win but I made mistakes and I'm shocked at how well he played. "This is a real learning curve for me." Lee, the former world number one, was playing his first All-England since 2014 following his eight-month drug suspension ended last year. Praneeth, however, clawed his way back from 11-3 and 15-7 deficits in the first game to take control of the match and hailed the win as his best result. "It is a big shock for me too and after the last rally I cannot believe that I won," said Praneeth, who set up a last 16 clash with Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.
A rematch of the All England final between India's Saina Nehwal and world champion Carolina Marin is on the cards with the two stars given first and second seeding in the Yonex Sunrise India Open Superseries to be played from March 24.
Saina Nehwal crashed out of the All England Championship after her gallant fight against World No. 3 Korean Sung Ji Hyun ended with a narrow 20-22, 20-22 loss in the women's singles quarter-finals of the Super Series Premier event in Birmingham.
India's campaign at the All England Badminton Championships came to a disappointing end with Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma all exiting from the tournament in Birmingham on Friday.
In the other semi-final, top seed Lin Dan of China will take on Singapore's Ronald Susilo.\n\n
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma also advanced to the second round of the $550,000 tournament at the Barclaycard Arena.
Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal's dream of winning her maiden All England Championship went up in smoke as the Indian suffered a straight-game defeat to World No. 8 Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand in the semifinals of the women's singles competition in Birmingham on Saturday.
Eyeing a third Olympic medal, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu will now move her base from Hyderabad to Bengaluru to train under the legendary Prakash Padukone in the build-up to the Paris Games.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
It's going to be a hell of journey, says Sindhu welcoming new coach Hafiz Hashim
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