India's men's and women's teams advanced to the quarter-finals despite suffering narrow 2-3 defeats to Japan and Thailand respectively in their final group ties at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Qingdao, China, on Thursday.
India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fell agonisingly short of a final berth, going down to Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in their men's doubles clash at the Denmark Open Super 750, in Odense, on Saturday.
Star Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semifinals, while Lakshya Sen lost his men's singles quarterfinal match in straight games at the Denmark Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Odense, on Friday.
'We kept our calm and didn't rush into anything. We knew the rallies would be long, and eventually, the shuttle would go down.'
The Indian duo will take on Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the final on Sunday.
In mixed doubles, K Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto prevailed 21-18, 21-14 over Macau's Leong Iok Chong and Weng Chi NG to make a winning start.
PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy had lost in the quarter-finals in the women's and men's singles respectively.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semifinals of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament with a straight game win.
What goes in favour of Asur 2 is its pace and novelty, even though the approach has all the hokiness of a comic book, observes Deepa Gahlot.
India's women shuttlers assured themselves of a maiden Badminton Asia Team Championships medal by cruising to a 3-0 win over Hong Kong in the quarter-finals.
Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 49 minutes.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bagged the biggest title of their career, winning the French Open Super 750 crown with a straight-game decimation of Chinese Taipei's Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han in the men's doubles final in Paris on Sunday.
Lakshya Sen, returning from a break, suffered a first round exit, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand entered the pre-quarters of the Asia Badminton Championship.
None of the other three quarters boast of such a strong star cast but there would be a few mouth-watering opening round clashes to look forward to.
The unseeded Indian duo had to toil hard for 58 minutes to win its round of 16 clash
Seventh seed Sindhu lost 14-21 18-21 to Bing Jiao in the women's singles.
'We haven't finished the tournament and we want to go all the way'
Satwik-Chirag dished out a gritty performance to outwit the local favourites a
'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.'
Sankar's father Subramanian encouraged him to drop out of the schooling system at an early age and pushed him to play in the upper age groups and senior circuits.
It was a tough day for the Indian shuttlers barring Ajay Jayaram, who sailed into the men's singles semi-finals with a comfortable win over compatriot Anand Pawar in the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in El Monte.
Pranaav and Sikki, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title in Lucknow earlier this year, squandered the advantage of winning the opening game and went down 21-14, 15-21, 19-21 to the local pair of Takuro Hoki and Sayaka Hirota.
'You will have good days and you will have hard days.' 'Go through all of them together.' 'Seek shared experiences with all kinds of people.' 'Build shared hope in the communities you join and the communities you form.' 'And above all, find gratitude for the gift of life itself and the opportunities it provides for meaning, for joy, and for love.'
India struck twice in the second half to beat Malaysia 2-0 and qualify for the semi-finals in the eighth women's Asia Cup hockey tournament at the Stadium Hoki Nasional, in Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday.
With this victory, Axelsen enjoys a 3-2 head-to-head lead over Srikanth in five meetings, having won the last three duels.
Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu will be the cynosure of all eyes when the seventh India Super Series badminton tournament gets underway with the qualifiers in New Delhi on Tuesday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
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