Lakshya Sen progressed to the quarter-finals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament with a straight-games win, but two-time Olympics medallist PV Sindhu's campaign ended in the second round in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday.
PV Sindhu jumped two places to grab the ninth spot, while former World No. 1 Saina, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from a serious injury, slipped five places to 11th spot.
The Indian will have yet another uphill task at hand when he takes on Axelsen, the baby-faced badminton giant, who has terrorised his opponents in the last few years.
Sen had emerged victorious in a 21-8, 22-20 straight games win. The result now stands cancelle
Lakshya's Paris hopes brighten, enters No.15 in Olympic Games qualification
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap have urged badminton's governing body to reconsider its decision not to extend the qualification period for the Tokyo Games despite several events being cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus.
PV Sindhu says if she remains injury-free and in peak physical condition, she will aim for a third medal.
Star Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have received a favourable draw for the Paris Olympics beginning July 26.
The 22-year-old from Almora, who had come close to winning an Olympic medal in Paris before finishing fourth, will undergo a series of tests at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Salzburg to get a detailed evaluation to rev up his fitness and game.
The Badminton World Federastion (BWF) unveiled a revised international calendar to salvage the remainder of the season, disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ajay Jayaram, who skipped the ongoing Korea Open, slipped a place to be at 17th.
Treesa and Gayatri will be up against fourth-seeded Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Former World No 1 Srikanth, who has not won a title at the BWF World Tour in the last 22 months, staved off a spirited a challenge from Ireland's Nhat Nguyen, winning 17-21, 21-16, 21-6 in a match that lasted an hour and six minutes to join Praneeth and Prannoy in the second round.
The Chirag-Satwik pair won the Thailand Open in May to reclaim the No.1 ranking but suffered loss of form and made a first-round exit from the Singapore Open last month.
'Otherwise, how will India become a sporting nation and how will we compete to beat China to win 60 Olympic medals?'
Sindhu, who is currently competing at the French Open in Paris, jumped one rung to stay one spot behind Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who continues to dominate the rankings.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy have been handed relatively easy groups for the Paris Games, which begin on July 26.
The 21-year-old Indian topped the ballot with 129 votes as she led a trio of women onto the BWF Athletes' Commission.
The unseeded Indian duo had to toil hard for 58 minutes to win its round of 16 clash
US Open champion Prannoy, who had reached a career-best World No 11 ranking last week, improved a place further to grab the 10th spot. He has been rewarded for his consistent performance this season where he reached the semi-finals at the Indonesia Open and French Open.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down to World No 4. pair Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the semi-finals on Saturday.
'We both are big foodies. We make it a point to go out and try different food after our matches.'
A new "unreturnable" spin-serve had caught the attention of the world's top badminton players with even the Indian doubles shuttlers putting in the hard yards to master this latest skill, which many believe can give "unfair" advantage to the players.
PV Sindhu still has the hunger to succeed, and the primary aim is to help her regain consistency, says her new coach Anup Sridhar, who has been roped in by the two-time Olympic medallist on a trial basis following the Paris Games.
The introduction of badminton's controversial 'skirt rule' has been postponed by a month to grant female shuttlers more time to adapt to the dress code, the game's governing body said.
Sindhu stands on the brink of history as she pursues the gold medal in the upcoming Games, having won a silver and bronze in 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo edition respectively.
After Canada Open triumph, Sen jumps 7 places to be at 12th spot in world rankings
The Indian men's team qualified automatically by virtue of being the defending champions while the women made the cut after winning a historic gold medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Malaysia earlier this year.
Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the group stages after losing their respective second round matches in the BWF World Tour Finals, in Bangkok, on Thursday.
India's Kiran Geroge moves to quarters, Ashmita bows out of Thailand Open
Coaching is the toughest job: Saina Nehwal on her future
A former world no. 2, Sindhu has regained her place in the top 5 after three years. The former world champion from Hyderabad resumed her training on Monday after recovering from the injury.
The Indian badminton team returned empty-handed from the Olympics for the first time in over a decade.
The world number nine will play Hong Kong's fifth seed Angus Ng Ka Long in the last eight stage.
Olympic medallist P V Sindhu is also missing in action as she recovers from an injury.
The top-16 in the world by April-end will make the cut for the Olympics.
India's Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat suffered straight-game defeats in their respective pre-quarterfinal matches to crash out of the men's singles competition of the Indonesia Masters, a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, in Jakarta on Thursday.
Just like in her campaign opener against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi on Wednesday, Sindhu squandered a game advantage to lose yet again in the year-ending BWF World Tour Final
Satwik-Chirag dished out a gritty performance to outwit the local favourites a
Sindhu's disappointing performances have seen her to slip to 17th in the BWF world rankings, her worst slump in a decade. Her previous highest ranking was 2nd in 2016.
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