P V Sindhu secured her fifth World Championships medal following a stunning comeback while B Sai Praneeth became the first Indian male shuttler in 36 years to grab a podium place in badminton's prestigious event, in Basel, on Friday.
For India to send two shuttlers in Tokyo Olympics women's singles, both of them will have to be inside top 16 in the world rankings which will be released after the end of qualification period, on April 30, 2020.
The London Olympics bronze medallist displaced Spain's Carolina Marin, who defeated her in the women's final of the World Championships in Jakarta last Sunday.
Top seed Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Asian Badminton Championship after losing her semi-final match against Chinese qualifier Xuerui Li, bringing down the curtains on the Indian challenge at the event in New Delhi on Saturday.
Padukone's career is also decorated with another big title having clinched the country's first world championship medal after winning the bronze medal in the 1983 championships.
After much dilly-dallying, the Sports Ministry has included Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in the 'Target Olympic Podium Scheme' (TOP) scheme, putting an end to the controversy surrounding the doubles duo's complaint of bias against the Ministry and chief national coach Pullela Gopichand.
The Badminton World Federation has postponed the Thomas and Uber Cup, the premier global men's and women's team championship, to be held in Denmark for three months from the earlier scheduled date in May in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She might be in red-hot form after her recent title wins but ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal feels past record won't matter when she begins her campaign in the World Badminton Championship in Paris on Tuesday.
As the Indian national anthem reverberated across the St Jakobshalle stadium, Sindhu stood at the podium with moist eyes.
Legendary Prakash Padukone was revered as the world number one player during his hey days before the modern day computerised ranking system was introduced.
In a 73-minute battle, Ayush, who hails from Sanoor near Karkala in Karnataka, showed his grit as he recovered from a game down to outwit his Indonesian opponent.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
PV Sindhu shared her happiness on winning second consecutive silver at the BWF World Championships.
India's Ajay Jayaram kept his nose ahead of compatriot P Kashyap for the London Olympics qualification as he notched a straight-game victory in the first round of Asia Badminton Championships in Qingdao, China, on Tuesday. Jayaram was the only bright spot on a gloomy day for India as the rest of the country's shuttlers failed to cross the first hurdle at the Qingdao Sports Centre Conson stadium.
Saina Nehwal, a bronze medallist in 2012 London Olympics, dropped a place to be at ninth position, while P V Sindhu retained her 11th spot in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings issued on Thursday.
In hockey, the women's team continued its inspiring run with a silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty staged a grand comeback after losing the opening game to beat top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in the final and win the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament, in Yeosu, on Sunday.
The parents of P V Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman singles player on Friday to ensure a medal at the ongoing World Badminton Championships, attributed their daughter's success to hard work and determination.
'I think it was a fantastic game for me. I started off really well in the first game but he was playing well in the second game, leading 11-6 at the break and fighting it out. But overall, I think my game was going great, my attack was going well for me'
A team mate of Japanese badminton Olympic medal hope Kento Momota on Friday confessed to taking the world number two-ranked player to an illegal casino and tearfully begged officials to allow the star to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Indonesian coach Agus Dwi Santoso has been roped in to guide the singles players -- both men and women -- ahead of Tokyo Olympics. Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary, Ajay Singhania said the visa process has started and Santoso is likely to join the Indian team in the mid of next month.
"I remember Chandrayaan-2's launch was earlier scheduled on July 15. I was there in Sriharikota. I saw the massive carrier, 'Bahubali', from close proximity.
Ajay Jayaram got off to a rousing start in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships, shocking higher-ranked Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, in Guangzhou, China, on Monday. The 25-year-old Indian, ranked No 24, beat the world No 12 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 in 64 minutes, at the Tianhe Indoor stadium.
The former world junior number one thus joined fellow Indians Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015) in winning a silver medal at the prestigious tournament.
Lakshya Sen's woeful run continued as he made a first round exit
The Bangalore lad shocked world No 12 Shoji Sato of Japan in a quarter-final match at the Yonex-Sunrise Asian Badminton Championship.
Their only loss came against group toppers China, the most successful team in the tournament with 13 titles, in their second group tie on the opening day of the tournament.
"It's the biggest win in my career so far and I'm happy it came in a big event like the world championships," said Sridhar.
India's national champion beat seventh seeded Scott Evans of Ireland in the final of the Yonex Hungarian International Open.
Prakash Padukone backed Sindhu to win the World Championship crown soon after two consecutive silver medal performances in the prestigious event.
With the main draw of the Asian Badminton Championships set to get underway from Wednesday, the struggling Indian shuttlers face an uphill task.
Indian Mithun Manjunath stunned fourth seed and world number seven Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in the opening round while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth secured straight-game wins.
The Indian duo outclassed the Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede in the quarter-finals.
Kidambi Srikanth scored a stunning straight-games victory over world No. 4 Lee Zii Jia but Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Osaka, on Wednesday.
Sindhu saw off Sim 21-13, 12-21, 21-14 in a 59-minute women's singles second-round match to register her third win over the Korean world number 34.
Sumit Antil clinched a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games javelin throw F64 event with a world record effort of 73.29m.
The top-seeded Indian pair lost in straight games against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia in Birmingham on Thursday.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu survived some tense moments before progressing to the women's singles second round, but it was curtains for Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles at the Badminton Asia Championships, in Ningbo, China, on Wednesday.
1999 World champion Camilla Martin, 2001 world championship runner-up Peter Gade Christensen and 1997 World cham Peter Rasmussen will spearhead the squad.
Lakshya Sen dished out a badminton masterpiece to notch up his second BWF Super 500 title with a straight-game win over Li Shi Feng of China in the final.
