P V Sindhu stormed into the quarter-finals of the women's singles badminton at the Olympics with an easy 21-15, 21-13 victory over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in Tokyo on Thursday.
Expectations from the Indian male shuttlers will also be high, given their exploits in recent months.
The former world billiards champ advanced with a thumping win over Cheung Sing of Hong Kong in the IBSF World Snooker championships.
Both the Indian paddlers were outplayed in their pre-quarter-final matches at the Asian Games.
India's Saina Nehwal produced a dominating performance to notch up a straight-game victory over Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin and storm into the final of the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold.
India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu breezed into the second round of the French Open after crushing Beiwen Zhang in straight games.
Chinese supporters have been visible and vocal.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Sindhu leads India to 3-2 win over Hong Kong in Asia badminton Team Championship
Defending champion P V Sindhu stood just one step away from retaining her title after defeating Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon in a lop-sided semi-final at the $ 350,000 India Open Super 500 tournament in New Delhi on Saturday.
Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy sailed into the pre-quarter-finals, but it was heartbreak for Parupalli Kashyap in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Olympian Ankita Das lost to China's Chen Meng 0-4 in the pre-quarters while national champion K Shamini and seasoned Mouma Das made third round exits as the Indian challenge in the women's singles event came to end at the Asian TT Championships, in Busan, Korea on Friday.
The biggest upset of the day was produced by Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, who knocked out Olympic champion and last year's finalist Carolina Marin 21-12, 21-19, in a 48-minute clash.
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'Her defence was the one only problem. (Carolina) Marin and Pornpawee (Chochuwong) are good attacking players, they were using a lot of half smash and straight smash, and when Sindhu's defence goes down on a day, it affects her other skills as well, she gets nervous. But now she has improved a lot in her defence as well. Her endurance on the court is also good.'
The Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty shocked reigning World champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan to join P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in the quarter-finals of the US $750,000 French Open, in Paris, on Thursday.
Lack of adequate time to recover after a late night match affected Saina Nehwal's performance in the semi-finals, feels her coach Vimal Kumar, who called for perfect scheduling of matches in big ticket events such as World Championship and Olympics.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship in Glasgow on Tuesday.
India's shuttle queen Saina Nehwal emphatically progressed into the quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championship.
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A profligate P V Sindhu was, on Wednesday, knocked out of the All England Championship by an industrious Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the women's singles opening round in Birmingham.
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Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal led India to the quarter-finals of Uber Cup with a crushing 4-1 victory over Hong Kong but it was curtains for their male counterparts in the Thomas Cup after they lost to Korea 2-3 in New Delhi.
According to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent, think tank dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive and tangible measure of progress, India ranks 143rd
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