India's formidable duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced to the women's doubles quarter-finals of the China Open badminton after eking out an easy 21-9, 21-12 victory over Iris Wang and Rena Wang of USA, in Shanghai, on Thursday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal created history on Saturday by becoming the first Indian singles player to reach the summit clash of the BWF Super Series Finals after defeating Tine Baun of Denmark during the semi-finals in Liuzhou in China.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal turned in a superb display to stun world No 3 Xin Wang in the last Group B match of the BWF Super Series Finals in Liuzhou, China, on Friday. The world No 4, who had already qualified for the semi-finals, won 21-17, 22-20 in 39 minutes.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a straight-game 19-21, 13-21 defeat to Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in the second round and crashed out of the Denmark Open Super Series, at Odense, on Thursday. However, Jwala Gutta and V Diju kept the tri-colour fluttering after a 21-16, 21-19 victory over Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier of England in the second round of the mixed doubles.
Saina Nehwal stormed into the women's singles quarter-finals at the World Badminton Championships at the Wembley Arena, in London, on Thursday. The world No 6 Indian ace was leading 21-3, 13-5 when her opponent, Pui Yin Yi of Hong Kong, seeded 14th, retired from the third round match.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal started her campaign at the World Badminton Championships with a straight-set demolition of Chloe Magee of Ireland to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles in London.
Ajay Jayaram led India to a 5-0 whitewash of hosts Macau in the Thomas Cup, but it was a losing start for the Indian women's team, which lost 2-3 to Malaysia, in the Uber Cup Asia Zone tournament on Tuesday.
Singles stars Saina Nehwal and P Kashyap recorded victories but that was not enough to save India from defeat as it lost 2-3 to Chinese Taipei in the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton competition in Qingdao, China, on Sunday.
India's challenge at the Korean Open ended after the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their quarter-final match in the Super Series tournament in Seoul on Friday.
In 2002 Manchester, she was a novice taking her first steps in badminton but eight years down the line, Jwala Gutta is one of the best medal prospects for India at the Commonwealth Games and the 27-year-old says she will not let her country down.
Aditi Mutatkar became a first round casualty but Indian men's and mixed doubles pairs kept the tri-colour fluttering as India wrapped up a mixed day at the World Badminton Championships in Paris on Monday.
Saina Nehwal struggled her way to the second round of the French Super Series badminton tournament after defeating German Juliane Schenk in a thrilling first-round match in Paris.
Amidst controversies, the National Sports Awards were presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday.
As a successful but physically draining year draws to a close, one half of Indian badminton's most formidable mixed doubles pair, Jwala Gutta, is now aiming for a Super Series title in the new season to ensure a good build-up to the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi next year.
Saina Nehwal defeated Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in straight games to advance to the semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters Finals in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Friday.
Ace shuttler Jwala Gutta suffered twin defeats in mixed doubles and women's doubles categories to crash out as India's challenge ended in the Hong Kong Super Series badminton tournament in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Back on the court after a month, Saina Nehwal will battle it out against a tough field while the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju will aim for a second title at the Japan Open Super Series.
The Indian ace frittered away a 10-1 lead in the second game before going down 21-16, 21-19 to second seed Lin Wang in the quarter-finals.
Saina Nehwal's dream of pocketing back-to-back titles were dashed by Chinese qualifier Xin Wang, who beat her in the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Johor Bahru on Friday. The Indian second seed cut a sorry figure as Wang took just 26 minutes to score a 21-14, 21-10 victory.
The new women's doubles pairing of Shruti Kurian and Aparna Balan was the lone blip in an otherwise great start by India in the biennial Sudirman Cup badminton tournament in Guangzhou, on Monday. India rolled over Australia 4-1 in their Group 3 (sub-group 3B) opener in their quest for promotion to Group 2. India raced ahead to victory in the first four matches before Kurian and Balan went down.
Parupalli Kashyap beat seventh-seed Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh 21-19, 17-21, 21-11 in a battle lasting an hour to cruise into the quarter-finals of the Asian Badminton Championship. However, the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta bowed out in the second round of the tournament.
Jwala Gutta clinched the women's doubles and mixed doubles titles at the Bulgarian Grand Prix badminton tournament in Sofia on Sunday. Jwala first combined with V Diju to win a successive mixed doubles Grand Prix title. She the paired with Shruti Kurian to win the women's doubles.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal thumped Hung Yung Chan of Hong Kong in straight games to sail into the quarter-finals of the Yonex Sunrise Indian Open in Hyderabad on Thursday. Women's second-seed Saina rode on the unforced errors of her opponent and thrashed her 21-8, 21-8 to set up a quarter-final clash with fifth-seed Xian Wong of Malaysia.
A vociferous crowd failed to inspire India as the hosts went down fighting to Malaysia 1-3 in the finals of the mixed badminton event to settle for a silver in the Commonwealth Games at the Siri Fort sport complex in New Delhi on Friday.
India's Saina Nehwal bowed out of the Yonex Korea Super Series losing to Indonesia's Adrianti Firdasari in the second round, while mixed doubles duo of V Diju and Gwala Gutta upset the top seed to move into the quarter-finals in Seoul on Thursday.
Shuttler Arvind Bhat advanced to the second round of men's singles event while mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta won their opening match on a mixed day for Indians at the Yonex Korea Super Series in Seoul on Wednesday. Bhat got the better of compatriot Chetan Anand 21-12, 21-13 in 24 minutes in the first round when many of his compatriots bite the dust.
National champion Chetan Anand and Aditi Mutatkar sailed into the semi-finals even as mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out in the Dutch Open badminton tournament in Amsterdam on Friday. In the women's singles, Aditi defeated Indonesia's Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari 12-21, 21-13, 21-18, while sixth seed Chetan got the better off 13th seed Ari Yuli W Hartanto of Indonesia 21-8, 21-16 in 29 minutes to stay on course for his third consecutive title.
Indian shuttlers had a field day in the KLRC Bulgarian Grand Prix in Sofia. Aditi Mutatkar, in the women's singles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, in the men's doubles, and the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta entered the quarter-finals on Thursday.
He will take over the doubles responsibilities for the Thomas Cup.
Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal retained the men's and women's singles titles at the National Badminton Championship.
Sindhu, who had finished runners-up at the last edition in Dubai, will have a tough task at hand as she has been clubbed with defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and USAs' Beiwen Zhang in Group A.
India started their Sudirman Cup campaign in fine fashion beating Finland 4-1 in their first group rubber.
If India manage to beat France in the play-offs, it will be the first time they would be promoted to Division 2 of the world team championships.
Indian shuttlers thrashed New Zealand 5-0 in a Group B encounter in Glasgow.
Jwala Gutta said that before comparing ourselves to badminton giants like China and Japan, India should look to improve the quality of doubles' players. Jwala also questioned the logic of holding the national camp only at the Gopichand academy.
Chetan Anand beat Eric Pang 8-15, 15-6, 15-7 to win the Irish Open Badminton Championship.
They beat Wales 4-1 in the World team badminton championship.
With the straight-game victory, Sindhu became the first Indian to achieve the feat.
Indian mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra clinched their maiden Grand Prix title, bagging the Brazil Open with a straight games victory over Canadian combo of Toby Ng and Rachel Honderich at Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, on Sunday.
Krrish Delhi Smashers staged a great fightback after losing the first two matches to down Hyderbaad Hotshots 3-2, in the Indian Badminton League in Lucknow.