With a new campaign for Gatorade and renewed thrust on sports drinks, PepsiCo looks to make the most of the growing passion for fitness in the country.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu set up a mouth-watering summit clash with Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin after a hard-fought win over World No 4 Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the semi-finals of the India Super Series, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
Indian women's team had won a bronze medal at Incheon four years ago and Sindhu hoped they can change the colour of the medal this time when the multi-sport event gets underway on August 18.
India's Neeraj Chopra explains why he lost to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem in the Olympics men's Javelin Throw final.
Sporting fraternity hails Sindhu's historic World C'ships gold
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.
Hailing Pusarla V Sindhu's excellent show right through 2016 that saw her becoming the first and only Indian shuttler to win a silver medal in the Olympic Games, chief national coach P Gopichand said his lanky ward is capable of scaling greater heights. "I have always maintained that even when she won in 2013 or 2014 (back-to-back world championship singles bronze medals) Sindhu is still some time away from being her best. I maintain that even now that she has the potential to do even better," said the former All-England men's singles champion during an interaction with the media in Mumbai.
Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu made it to her maiden Super Series final with a stunning upset victory over reigning world champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the Denmark Open.
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal, while Laskhya Sen entered his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
'It is hard to digest that Sridevi is no more'
Satwik-Chirag pair achieves career-best world no. 2 ranking
Verma who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semifinals of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament with a straight game win.
She is just two points behind leader Veronika Major of Hungary, who shot an aggregate of 592 (294 and 298) which helped her equal the Olympic record.
Indian contingent has an opportunity to go deep in the draw and recapture the trophy which has been won by just two Indians so far -- the legendary Prakash Padukone (1980) and P Gopichand (2001).
In the men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty maintained their world number two ranking, although they lost in the quarter-finals of the World Championships going down to Kim Astrup-Anders Rasmussen.
World champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Chinese Taipei's No 1 shuttler Tai Tzu Ying will be up for grabs when the high-profile Players' Auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League gets underway in Hyderabad on Monday.
Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu and Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarter-finals after registering thrilling three-game wins over their respective opponents in the second round of the China Super Series Premier, in Fuzhou, on Thursday.
Jwala says Sindhu should scan through all the videos of her past matches and work on her strategy.
Indonesian coach Agus Dwi Santoso has been roped in to guide the singles players -- both men and women -- ahead of Tokyo Olympics. Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary, Ajay Singhania said the visa process has started and Santoso is likely to join the Indian team in the mid of next month.
In sizzling form after clinching the China Open and finishing runners-up at Hong Kong, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will look to sign off the year with another crown when she competes in the season-ending World Superseries Finals starting in Dubai from Wednesday. In Rio de Janeiro, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win an Olympics silver medal in August, but qualifying for the Dubai World Super Series final still was a far cry as she was placed at 16th in the Destination Dubai Rankings with just two events -- China Open and Hong Kong Open -- remaining.
Spearheading India's challenge at the World Championships, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu says she is in good form and vowed to better the colour of her past two bronze medals.
The biggest upset of the day was produced by Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, who knocked out Olympic champion and last year's finalist Carolina Marin 21-12, 21-19, in a 48-minute clash.
India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty outclassed Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe of Japan in straight games to enter the men's doubles final at the French Open.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, on the other hand, moved one place to 31st.
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.
Sporting icons -- PV Sindhu and MC Mary Kom -- will be the star attractions among the Indians on Day 6 of the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
Nehwal has had a troubled run in this year as she has now faced exits from a tournament in the first round five times.
The cricket fraternity, including new T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav and new head coach Gautam Gambhir, also joined in to congratulate the duo.
Sindhu said she is working on her technique to iron out the flaws.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu clinched her maiden Super Series Premier title after edging out Sun Yu of China in the finals of the China Open badminton tournament in Fuzhou on Sunday. Sindhu, who became the toast of the country after becoming the first Indian women to win a silver at Rio Games, continued her rampaging run as she lifted the prestigious title after beating Sun 21-11 17-21 21-11 in the summit clash that lasted an hour and nine minutes.
Lakshya Sen, who won both his matches to play his part in the silver medal-winning effort in men's team event, too dropped one spot to world number 15. Kidambi Srikanth gained a spot to 20th.
After six successive losses in 13 meetings, PV Sindhu finally got the better of her nemesis World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying.
She will meet World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying for the title on Sunday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
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.
Describing the year that's coming to an end as "fantastic" for her personally, Rio Olympic Games silver medal-winning shuttler Pusarla V Sindhu said she was now targeting the no.1 world ranking among women after reaching a career-best six at present. "It has been a fantastic year for me, because winning a medal at the Olympics is a big achievement. It's a dream come true. Also, I always had in mind that I wanted to win a Super Series title and that also was fulfilled (at the China Open)," Sindhu told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event in Mumbai on Thursday.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
P V Sindhu hoped to regain peak fitness before the start of individual events and assured India will return with multiple medals.
Expectations from the Indian male shuttlers will also be high, given their exploits in recent months.
