Nozomi Okuhara's harrowing experience after her touchdown in India was 'unfortunate and won't happen in future'
Eight seeded Saina defetaed Okuhara 21-15, 21-14 late last night to improve her head-to-head record to 6-1 against her Japanese opponent.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 48 hours.
India's gymnastics heroine Dipa Karmakar has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of setting up a Task Force.
British journalist and television show host was heavily criticised on social media after he made fun of India's performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics. While India's medal winners, shuttler PV Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik were felicitated, Morgan took to Twitter to call India's celebrations 'embarrassing' and 'exaggerated'.
Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra today said that the country should aim to win 'double digit' medals at the Tokyo Olympics
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.
Showering praise on Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said these "daughters" were the saving grace of India at the Rio Games. Speaking at the inaugural function of Sauni irrigation project in Sanosara (Gujarat), Modi touched upon several social issues plaguing the country including gender-based discrimination.
Saina Nehwal has claimed that her father Harvir's name has been removed from the Indian team official's list for the Commonwealth Games, leaving her frustrated just before the start of the mega event.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has helped raise 71 lakh through donations from its state affiliates and National Sports Federations (NSF) as contribution towards the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOA will transfer the donations to Prime Minister Cares Fund, the statement added.
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand feels Indian athletes no longer have to worry about the basic facilities that he had to struggle for in his playing days.
Badminton's Tokyo rankings frozen as BWF rules out any more qualifying tournaments.
The Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament, one of badminton's last two Olympic qualifying events, was on Friday postponed due to a recent COVID-19 surge in the host country, dealing a severe blow to the Tokyo hopes of Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.
The 14-year-old Unnati pipped Malvika 24-22, 24-22 in a nail-biting 50-minute semifinal clash
The other men's singles semi-final match on Saturday will be played between Priyanshu Rajawat and Kaushal Dharmamer.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Telangana Badminton Association vice president V Chamundeswarinath on Tuesday gifted a high-end car to Indian women's cricket team Captain Mithali Raj for becoming the highest run-getter in the women's ODIs.
Kidambi Srikanth rallied his way to a thrilling win in a tense decider as India kept alive their hopes of winning a first-ever gold medal at the Asian Games.
India's Siril Verma climbed a whopping 11 rungs to take the number one spot in the junior men's singles category of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Thursday.
'I think Sindhu could have won. We had our chances in women's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles yesterday and they could have pulled through. I think Kashyap also has had a good run. He has had a good tournament. Considering what has happened in the last year with him, it has been a good comeback'
Ishaan and Sai Pratheek took just 30 minutes to get the better of English duo
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Sindhu leads India to 3-2 win over Hong Kong in Asia badminton Team Championship
Saina Nehwal produced one of her finest performances in recent times to guide Indian women's team to a comfortable victory over Thailand and catapult the hosts to the top of Group Y in the Uber Cup badminton tournament in New Delhi.
HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma are the men's singles players who have decided to withdraw while doubles specialists Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy have also opted out. Leading Indian women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal - both previous Olympic medallists - are making the trip to England, as are their male counterparts Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth.
While the top names in badminton haven't openly discussed mental health and wellbeing issues in the way that gymnast Simone Biles and tennis player Naomi Osaka have done of late, Olympic expectations nonetheless weigh heavily on some.
Injured HS Prannoy's absence hurt India as they went down fighting 2-3 against badminton powerhouse China
