Commonwealth Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won a bronze medal at the World Championships in August, will play Chinese Taipei's Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han, who got the better of England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-15, 21-14 in the other semi-final.
None of the other three quarters boast of such a strong star cast but there would be a few mouth-watering opening round clashes to look forward to.
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.
The Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament, one of badminton's last two Olympic qualifying events, was on Friday postponed due to a recent COVID-19 surge in the host country, dealing a severe blow to the Tokyo hopes of Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.
Malaysian shuttlers Tan Chun Seang and Zulfadli Zulkiffli have received 15- and 20-year bans after being found guilty of offences relating to "betting, wagering and irregular match results", Badminton World Federation (BWF) said on Wednesday.
Sindhu made short work of fifth seed Michelle Li of Canada 21-10, 21-19 in 36 minutes
Defending champion Lakshya Sen pulled out of the SaarLorLux Open Super 100 tournament after his father-cum-coach D K Sen tested positive for COVID-19 in Saarbrucken.
Srikanth made a good start in the second game, moving to 7-3 advantage but Lee once again turned the tables, jumping to 13-9 and kept his nose ahead to eventually shut the doors on the Indian.
Prannoy and Sen played five times in 2022 with Sen coming into the match with a slender 3-2 advantage.
On Sunday the Ukrainian Tennis Federation urged the sport's governing body the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to immediately expel Russia and Belarus from the organisation and ban Russia from team and individual tournaments. Also, athletes from Ukraine and other nations have called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend Russia and Belarus and ban their athletes from events immediately.
Sindhu had been left in tears after an 'unfair' call by the umpires midway
His backhand blocks and forehand low returns reaped dividends but an alert Gemke managed to grab a four-point cushion at the interval.
Krishna and Vishnu had paired for the first time in this event and would be pleased with the results they managed.
Leading the congratulatory messages from the film industry for the ace shuttler were Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Top Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss to seventh seeded English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 17-21, 14-21 in a last-8 match.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are on a collision course at next week's World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, as they have been placed in the same half after the world governing body re-conducted the women's singles draw.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Badminton World Federation must shoulder some responsibility for the match-throwing scandal at the 2012 Games, Chinese state media said on Friday.
India's national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand wants Badminton World Federation (BWF) to come up with "radical" solutions to restart the sport smoothly in a post coronavirus world, suggesting that conducting more tournaments at a single venue could be the way forward. The coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected over 41 lakh people and caused close to 3 lakh deaths worldwide, forced BWF to suspend all events, including the Olympic qualifiers, till end of July.
'In the last few months, we have been pushing ourselves and training hard. Even in the pandemic, we continued to train under the guidance of Gaurav Khanna sir and never deterred from our focus.'
India's Lakshya Sen won his second successive BWF World Tour Super 100 title with a thrilling victory over China's Weng Hong Yang in the final of the SaarLorLux Open, in Saarbrucken, Germany, on Sunday.
It is "irritating" to be unlucky all the time; perhaps they need some "divine intervention" to win crucial matches, said a frustrated Satwiksairaj Rankireddy after he and Chirag Shetty were beaten in the men's doubles semi-finals at the World Championships, in Tokyo, on Friday.
The emotional and financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic is weighing on Indian shuttler HS Prannoy's mind and he believes that the already "bleak" scenario would only get worse if things don't take a turn for the better in one and a half month's time. The coronavirus outbreak, which has killed over 40,000 globally, has put countries in lockdown and halted sports, including badminton, across the world. It has also triggered financial and mental woes across the world.
Kidambi Srikanth created history as he became the first Indian man to enter the World Badminton Championships final after edging compatriot Lakshya Sen in a thrilling semi-final, in Huelva, Spain on Saturday. Srikanth rallied after losing
The 2021 All England Open will be the second tournament this year to offer ranking points to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, after the Swiss Open.
Former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar on Tuesday blamed the withdrawals by Asian nations for the postponement of the Thomas and Uber Cup Final, calling it a "big setback" for the sport.
I don't want to respond to what her father has to say, if Sindhu says something, I will respond, Gopichand retorts to PV Sindhu's father's allegations of unsatisfactory training.
With five titles under his belt, Lakshya Sen was racing towards the top echelons of international badminton before his stunning run was halted by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought all sporting action to a halt across the world. With the world in lockdown to contain the deadly disease, Lakshya too is enduring the uncertain times within the confines of his apartment, near the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru.
Saina Nehwal's chances of defending her title at the Commonwealth Games looks bleak as she has decided to skip the selection trials for the upcoming multi-sport events.
Former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar reckons a tough journey awaits Saina Nehwal, who will need to target specific tournaments to prolong her career after the COVID-19 pandemic shattered her Tokyo Olympics dreams.
The top Indian players, including Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth have failed to lift the prestigious trophy
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu hopes the Commonwealth Games will serve as a perfect launchpad in her quest to regain the World Championships crown next month.
World champion shuttler P V Sindhu on Thursday donated Rs 5 lakh each to the Chief Minister's Relief Funds of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to fight the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 21,000 lives globally. The number of positive cases in India has surpassed the 600-mark, while 13 deaths have been reported so far, prompting the government to put the country under lockdown till April 14 to halt the spread of the virus.
Bansod took just over half an hour to dispatch 16-year-old Tasnim in the pre-quarterfinals
India's shuttlers, including London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, expressed shock after reports emerged that a sparring partner of the Taiwanese national team, who was in Birmingham during the All England Championship, tested positive for the coronavirus.
Sindhu assured herself of a medal in the Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu eked out a thrilling win over China's He Bing Jiao to enter the singles semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships in Manila on Friday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty capped off a memorable campaign at the World Badminton Championships, signing-off with a historic bronze medal in the men's doubles competition after going down narrowly to Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the semi-finals, in Tokyo, on Saturday.
Star India shuttler P V Sindhu made an exit from Thailand Open after going down in straight games to Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei in the semi-finals in Bangkok on Saturday.
India's campaign at the BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament ends after Srikanth, Prannoy and Verma were knocked out earlier in the day.
The Indian men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reclaimed its position in the top 10 of the latest BWF rankings.
Earlier, the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy suffered their second successive loss in the event, going down fighting 19-21, 20-22 to Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva to bow out of contention.
