Two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed PV Sindhu made a positive start to her title defence on Wednesday, beating Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland 21-9, 21-16 in a lopsided opening round women's singles match.
'Badminton at this level is a mental game.' 'Often just one or two points makes the deficit and often it's upstairs on the first floor that these things happen.'
Here's your complete guide to when India's athletes compete at the Paris Olympics, with dates, events, and timings in IST.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who hasn't played any tournament since the Birmingham Games due to an ankle injury, is now world number five after moving up a spot.
In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost 13-21, 12-21 to the Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping in the first round.
Taapsee Pannu wed longtime beau Mathias Boe over the weekend in Udaipur.
HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma are the men's singles players who have decided to withdraw while doubles specialists Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy have also opted out. Leading Indian women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal - both previous Olympic medallists - are making the trip to England, as are their male counterparts Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth.
The 21-year-old Sen, who won a bronze in the 2021 World Championships, has been in brilliant form, starting the year with a gold medal at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open before finishing runner-up, at the prestigious All England Open Championships and also at the German Open.
'The kind of things they were writing, 'Oh, what is this, she's overacting at her wedding.' 'Why is she not covering her head?' 'The kind of liberty people take to comment on what I should be doing in my personal life is not something I'm okay with.'
When the going gets tough for P V Sindhu, the star badminton player dives into her highly successful past to seek inspiration to keep going in her quest for more glory.
Fellow Indian Kidambi Srikanth also jumped two places to sit at the 12th spot, while Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian male shuttler at world number 9.
Indian boys Chirag Shetty and Vaibhav Bhisne won the doubles under-15 title at the Yonex Sunrise badminton tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, defeating the favoured host pairing of Dheva Anrimusthi and Rizky Adam 21-13, 23-21.
Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy has pulled out of the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament due to a back injury that troubled him during his maiden bronze medal-winning run at the recently-concluded Asian Games.
Lakshya Sen's woeful run continued as he made a first round exit
This is the third time this year that Sindhu has been knocked out in the first round of the tournaments she's played.
India will send 117 athletes to the Paris Olympics, starting July 26 in the French capital. This will be India's second-biggest contingent at an Olympic Games after 121 athletes went to Tokyo in 2021. A total of 47 female and 70 male athletes will be part of the Indian contingent at the Games.
Meet India's top athletes at Olympics 2024.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
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.
20-year-old Malvika Bansod, ranked 111th, took 34 minutes to register a straight games victory against former World No 1 Saina Nehwal.
The absence of double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, London Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also hurt India's prospect as the team cut a sorry figure at the team-tournament.
Two-time Olympic-medallist P V Sindhu made a winning return from a lengthy injury lay-off as India stunned formidable China 3-2 in the women's competition of the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Shah Alam, Malaysia on Wednesday.
Sindhu expectedly faced no resistance from Uganda's Husina Kobugabe, winning 21-10, 21-9 in her pre-quarterfinal match.
'They want us to win in every match, like in cricket.' 'It's so tough to play every tournament and win.'
Lakshya leaves Paris with the best-ever finish by an Indian shuttler in the men's singles event at the Olympics.
India's PV Sindhu, drawn in easy group, faces Israel's Ksenia in opener.
Satwik has been working with sport & performance psychologist Shree Advani
Sindhu took 38 minutes to prevail over her recent nemesis from Indonesia 21-19, 21-15
Lakshya Sen mounted a remarkable comeback to become the first male Indian shuttler to qualify for the singles semi-finals at the Olympic Games.
'You can't just have one single player who is individually doing well and be able to win the World Championship or the Olympics.' 'In the Thomas Cup, you need a group of players performing at the same time at their highest level.' 'So that shows how difficult it is, and what a great achievement that is for a country like India to be able to win it.'
India's men's badminton lifted the Thomas Cup title with a commanding 3-0 win over powerhouse Indonesia
Injured HS Prannoy's absence hurt India as they went down fighting 2-3 against badminton powerhouse China
Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday praised star pacer Mohammed Shami and para-archer Sheetal Devi after being honoured with the Arjuna Award in Delhi.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Indian women's badminton star Saina Nehwal crashed out of the women's singles competition in the first round after a loss to China's Zhang Yiman. She lost the match 17-21, 21-19,11-21. After being a game down, Nehwal made a comeback in the second game but lost the final one.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Wednesday, October 4.
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.
Six medals from a 117-strong contingent is not ideal but India had its moments of joy, hope, frustration, and heartache.
Star shuttlers, including P V Sindhu, will chase individual gold medals but doubles would also under the spotlight as India would aim to retain the mixed team title and continue their consistent run at the Commonwealth Games.
