Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Ajay Jayaram continued their good run and reached the quarterfinals of the season-opening Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Sarawak on Thursday.
Modi's remarks came in response to a congratulatory message from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on his election victory.
Rising Indian shuttler P V Sindhu pulled off an upset over former world No 1 Shixian Wang of China to storm into the women's singles quarter-finals at the Badminton Asia Championships in Taipei. The world No 16, the lone Indian woman in the fray in the absence of star compatriot Saina Nehwal, rallied from a game down to win a tense contest 15-21, 21-14, 22-20.
This was the third title for the Indian duo -- they had clinched the Abu Dhabi Masters Super 100 and Nantes International Challenge this year.
Making a comeback after a three-month injury lay-off, Saina Nehwal struggled to make an impression as she went down to Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the first round of the China Open Super Series.
Sumit storms into Thailand open boxing semi-finals
Sourabh Verma and Ajay Jayram also entered the second round
Sania Mirza bowed out of the Aegon Classic when she and her Chinese Taipei partner Chuang Chia-Jung lost in straight sets in the semi-finals in Birmingham on Saturday night. The third-seeded Indo-Taipei pair lost 5-7, 3-6 to the top seeded Zimbabwean-American pair of Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
A traditional rivalry will take centre stage when India take on Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Under-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament in Dhaka, on Thursday.
On an extremely bad for India at the Denmark Open, top seed Saina Nehwal suffered a shock second round defeat while Kidambi Srikanth also failed to clear the second round in men's singles of the $650,000 Super Series Premier event, in Odense on Thursday.
'I never expected it, because my personal best in a competition was 710. And this is my best score.'
China has also announced that it would hold six live-fire military drills in waters around Taiwan.
Jia Min was happy to execute her plan but acknowledged that her opponent was not at her best shape.
Ramkumar Ramanathan proved his ascendancy in Indian tennis yet again as he knocked out Yuki Bhambri from the ATP Indore Open even as India's top player Somdev Devvarman also made an early exit, in Indore, on Thursday.
The Indian men's team is searching for its maiden medal at the tournament. No Indian men's team has ever reached the semi-finals of the Thomas Cup.
India's Parul Chaudhary and Priti secured silver and bronze medals respectively in the women's 3000m steeplechase, unheralded Ancy Sojan made a grand entry on the big stage.
Dhillon finished second with 52 hits.
Bindyarani Devi had a total effort of 194kg (83kg+111kg) in the non-Olympic 55kg category.
Sania Mirza conceded her first round singles match of the qualifying event of the USD 600,000 Aegon International in Eastbourne after suffering a hip-strain.
India's Saina Nehwal lost to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying 21-16, 18-21, 21-14 and was knocked out of the BWF World Superseries Final in Dubai on Friday.
Saina Nehwal scripted a remarkable victory over reigning World Champion Carolina Marin to turn around her campaign at the BWF Super Series Finals even as Srikanth faced exit after suffering his second straight loss in the men's singles in Dubai.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her partner Lucie Safarova won their first Grand Slam women's doubles title
Shaik Abdullah and Fatehdeep Singh came a cropper in the decisive doubles rubber as India lost the opening tie on the junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania qualifying round 1-2 to fourth seed Chinese Taipei in Delhi on Monday.
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.
In what seems to be a mouth-watering clash for Indian tennis fans, Rohan Bopanna set up a semi-final clash with veteran Leander Paes after the two players won their respective mixed doubles matches on Day 8 of the US Open in New York, on Monday.
Sania Mirza and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei have upset second seeded Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual to enter the women's doubles quarterfinal of the Madrid Open event.
India's campaign came to an end at the Western and Southern Open after Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis crashed out.
Sania Mirza and her Chinese Taipei partner Chia-Jung Chuang reached the doubles quarter-finals of the $ 220,000 MPS Group Championships in Florida, but not before some late scares.
Sindhu and compatriot Saina Nehwal have lost 22 matches between them to Tai.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi quelled a late challenge from Tsung-Hua Yang and Chu-Huan Yi to carve out a hard fought 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 win in the doubles rubber of the second round Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei to hand India a 2-1 advantage in Kaohsiung on Saturday.
Sharath along with G Sathiyan has been handed a tough draw in the men's singles competition.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who is returning from an ankle injury, begins her campaign against former World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the first round of Malaysia Open.
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, R M V Gurusaidutt and Sai Praneeth entered the pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles event at the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after victories over their respective opponents.
In pursuit of an elusive Olympic medal for India in archery, power couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das have left their 11-month-old daughter behind to find lost form and hone their skills under the legendary coach Kim Hyung-Tak, at a South Korean countryside.
The former world junior number one thus joined fellow Indians Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015) in winning a silver medal at the prestigious tournament.
India's Sania Mirza overcame a fighting Meng Yuan in a three-setter to earn a shot at singles title of the US$ 50,000 ITF Challenger event in Lexington, United States. The second seed Indian beat sixth seed Chinese 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the semi-final of the hard court event.
Fresh from their Korea Open triumph, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to continue their dream run.
Veteran Mahesh Bhupathi went out of the mixed doubles competition following a first-round loss.
The top seeds lost to Chris Haggard and Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round of the China Open.