India's top shuttler Saina Nehwal was not part of the action but Awadhe Warriors still proved to be good enough for Hyderabad Hunters, as they eked out a 4-3 win in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) in Hyderabad on Saturday night.
India's chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Friday admitted that it was tough for him to manage two of his illustrious wards Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu together, saying he could never pick a favourite between the two. Gopichand said he always saw the duo as his kids and felt bitter when Saina left his academy to join Prakash Padukone's academy.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
Shuttler N Sikki Reddy and physiotherapist Kiran C have tested positive for COVID-19 at the ongoing national camp, forcing the closure of the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad for sanitisation.
London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal resumed training at a separate facility in Hyderabad after the COVID-19-induced break and is likely to join the national camp at the Sports Authority of India-Pullela Gopichand Academy in a couple of weeks.
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.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their epic Commonwealth Games summit clash
It's going to be a hell of journey, says Sindhu welcoming new coach Hafiz Hashim
Pullela Gopichand, India's chief badminton coach, shares his views on the country's leading female players with Laxmi Negi/Rediff.com.
Anmol Kharb achieved a remarkable feat by securing her second consecutive title on Sunday, winning the Poland International with a straight-game victory over Switzerland's Milena Schnider
Chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, who guided Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu to Olympic medals in the successive Games, says he was lucky that he wasn't good in studies and it was a flunked IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) exam that paved his way to be a successful sportsperson.
In a series of tweets, Sawant questioned the selection of the team and urged Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Himanta Biswa Sarma to look into the matter.
Srikanth credits Gopichand for all recent success - the two back-to-back Super Series titles and says, 'My focus is on World Championships, not thinking of rankings'
Dipa Karmakar says the roads in Agartala are too narrow for a BMW and also the city does not have a single BMW showroom or service centre.
The quarter-final ouster in World Championship is a thing of past for ace shuttler Saina Nehwal whose only target is now to clinch a medal for the country in next month's Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi.
A 'chance meeting' with Pullela Gopichand near an auditorium lift was enough for Manasi Joshi to convince the national coach of her burning desire to become a world champion.
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand remained tightlipped about his split with Saina Nehwal, saying he doesn't want to talk about the issue as the Asian Games is just round the corner.
India on Sunday dethroned defending champions and 14-time winners Indonesia
Aiming to improve its standing as a sporting nation globally, India is trying to adopt the models followed by Australia and United Kingdom.
Lauding PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik for winning medals at the Rio Olympic Games, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, on Sunday, said it is the beginning of a wonderful journey for the duo.
Besides the duo, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri award.
P Kashyap insisted that he too has an outside chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Games but he has no way to pursue it as he can't train at the camp.
India's trailblazing gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Thursday denied reports that she was returning the BMW car presented to her by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for her historic performance at the Rio Olympic Games.
The selectors had also proposed to pick one pair each for men's and women's doubles and two mixed doubles combinations through a round-robin tournament format to decide the final standings.
Inspired by the peerless P V Sindhu and aspiring to be Indian badminton's aggressive new kid on the block. Tanvi Sharma is nothing like an average 15-year-old.
Once labelled mild and fragile, P V Sindhu has undergone an astounding transformation at Pullela Gopichand Academy - a mix and match of different exercises, on-court training and yoga that make up Sindhu's days, most of which begin with her starting practice at 4:15 am -- that is helping her slay the world's best, writes Nikita Puri
Ishaan and Sai Pratheek took just 30 minutes to get the better of English duo
The players will get tested again for the second time on Monday.
The SAI has formulated a detailed draft of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed before reopening of its training centres by the end of this month, as suggested by Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju but subject to clearance from the Health and Home ministry.
With the coronavirus pandemic halting all sport activities, India's former chief badminton coach Vimal Kumar on Tuesday urged the government to allow the Olympic-bound athletes to continue their training after conducting the required tests. Following the respective directives of the Talengana and Karnataka governments, the Pullela Gopichand academy in Hyderbad and Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore have been shut down for two weeks.
India should not have split their regular women's doubles pair to accommodate two combinations in Asian Games badminton team event, feels ex-shuttler Uday Pawar.
On Saturday, Sen had become only the fifth Indian after Prakash Nath (1947), Prakash Padukone (1980, 1981), Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Saina Nehwal (2015) to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after outwitting defending champion Lee Zii Jia in a gruelling semi-final.
They would only be allowed in the academy after they produce COVID-19 negative certificate, the SAI said in a release.
India's badminton doubles specialist N Sikki Reddy on Saturday heaved a sigh of relief after returning negative for COVID-19 barely two days after testing positive for the contagious disease, saying she was "shocked" by the not-so-kind reactions her initial result attracted.
Pullela Gopichand called P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal -- his two most successful pupils -- as 'precious diamonds'.
After a string of disappointing results, PV Sindhu parted ways with coach Park Tae Sang
India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth believes the days of domination of Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei are over and the tournaments are more wide open than ever.
HS Prannoy said continuous experimentation has been the key to his "special" season as he reached his second final of the year at the Australian Open Super 500 tournament in Sydney.
Though Sindhu decided against travelling to Denmark, she plans to participate in the Asia Open-I and Asia Open-II scheduled to be held in November.
If you don't produce quality coaches, you cannot produce next level of players, says Indian national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand.
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