The Delhi High Court Monday sought the Centre's stand on a petition by Manika Batra, who was left out of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Table Tennis Championships, assailing Table Tennis Federation of India's (TTFI) mandate of compulsory attendance at the National Coaching Camp in order to be selected.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) will make a fresh attempt to organise a training camp at the end of June but top players including Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan are not ready to travel anytime soon as the situation remains "unsafe".
Veteran Sharath Kamal and world no. 24 Manika Batra will lead the Indian men's and women's squads respectively at the Paris Games, where the country will make its Olympic debut in team events.
India has proposed to conduct all those disciplines that were axed from the 2026 Commonwealth Games to ensure that the country's medal tally is not affected when the event is held in Glasgow.
Bhavinaben Patel scripted history on Friday, becoming the first Indian table tennis player to secure a medal in the Paralympics after entering the semi-finals with a stunning straight-game win over world No. 5 Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in the women's singles Class 4 event, in Tokyo. The 34-year-old won her quarter-final 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in 18 minutes.
While Indian table tennis took giant strides in the year, a star too was born with Manika Batra pocketing as many as four medals including two historic gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Sathiyan, making his World Cup debut, went down 1-4 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11) to the German in the pre-quarters.
While tennis is a lucrative sport for those at the top -- the 2020 Australian Open singles champions each took home A$4.12 million ($2.52 million) -- those in the lower echelons often struggle to make ends meet.
India's table tennis player Soumyajit Ghosh has been provisionally suspended by his country's governing body after an 18-year-old woman filed a rape allegation against him with the police.
The big names who will be bidding for a podium finish before bidding farewell...
You don't prep for 2028 but for 2040, or even 2044. Sustained sporting excellence is based on mass support, grassroots development, and funding - and it is this trifecta India needs to work on, systematically, asserts Prem Panicker.
Sinner remains the man to beat at Melbourne Park even as doping officials seek a two-year ban for the world number one for failing two drugs tests last March.
Here is the current state of play among the 28 Olympic sports.
Check out how India's athletes fared on Day 11, Tuesday, August 6, 2024:
In a body blow to India's medal prospects in the Commonwealth Games, key sports such as hockey, badminton, wrestling, cricket and shooting have been dropped from the 2026 edition by host city Glasgow, which unveiled a pruned roster of 10 disciplines to keep the event budget-friendly.
There could be no place more appropriate for Djokovic to finally break free of his tie with Margaret Court on 24 Grand Slam singles titles than in her own backyard at Melbourne Park, where he has won the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup 10 times.
Three years ago, India returned from Tokyo with seven medals, and it is only natural that a double-digit performance is now desired in Paris.
Paralympic star Kumar Nitesh cites BAI apathy, wants badminton to be placed under PCI as para shuttlers needed to be treated on par with their able-bodied counterparts.
The Serb set up the breakaway PTPA on the eve of the US Open in September and resigned as head of the player council but last month he confirmed that he had been nominated by his fellow professionals for the current elections which he accepted.
Seven Olympic and six Paralympic disciplines were identified for support at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to the secretary, department of sports in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; the SAI, the BCCI, the WFI, and 15 other national sports federations.
All these male politicians are unlikely to risk their sinecures to speak up in support of a bunch of women wrestlers who have chosen to challenge a politician who appears to have the ruling regime in a stranglehold, points out Kanika Datta.
Soumyajit Ghosh has married his accuser after his career nose-dived owing to the crisis.
Earlier in the day, Russia was banned from defending its Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles but its players will still be allowed to compete at the Grand Slams and in regular tour events.
The Athletes Commission of the IOA has recommended the national Olympic body to put systems in place to deal with issues of the players "with respect and dignity" in the light of the protest by India's top wrestlers.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
Fritz delivers as US win inaugural United Cup crown
Ms Usha may soon discover that winning four gold medals at the Asian Games and qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics is a walk in the park compared with the challenges of stabilising governance at the IOA, observes Kanika Datta.
International Premier Tennis League founder Mahesh Bhupathi, one of India's most successful doubles player, confirmed the absence of the two star players.
The situation of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova is "bad" after she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium and she may never play again, R-Sport news agency quoted Shamil Tarpishchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, as saying.
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Andy Roddick said on Saturday he was honoured to have played in the era of the Big Four, but also acknowledged that they caused him no end of frustration during his career.
Swastika's father Sandeep, who is also her coach-cum-training partner, has been rendered jobless for more than four months and is finding it difficult to pay the rent for the house they are staying in at Navi Mumbai.
IOA wants flexibility with calendars
The frustration for aspirant Olympians has been palpable and athletes like table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran have been forced to innovate to stay sharp during the lengthy lockdowns.
The Azlan Shah Cup is the latest sporting event to be hit by the deadly coronavirus, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and infected 86,000 people across the world.
'The win will change a lot of things in Praggu... the confidence in his potential will be one of them. The win has ensured a lot of visibility which will give him a lot of opportunities.'
In an embarrassment to India, the country has been warned of heavy penalty by the Olympic Council of Asia if it withdraws from sending teams in a few disciplines in the upcoming Asian Games, a development which led to the IOA slamming some government officials for "ruining sport".
Sania Mirza's dream of playing alongside Roger Federer will be realised when the two team up for the mixed doubles in the third leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) beginning on Saturday.
The 23-times Grand Slam champion looked a completely different player from the person who smashed her way into the semi-finals of the doubles with Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday but managed to do just enough to beat the 86th-ranked McHale.
Calls from athletes and federations for a delay in the Games, which is scheduled to run from July 24 to Aug. 9, have intensified as the flu-like virus has brought sport to a grinding halt across the world.
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