It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the Japan Super Series as Ajay Jayaram, H S Prannoy and K Srikanth fought their way to the second round of the men's singles competition in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open, but it was H S Prannoy, who hogged the limelight on Thursday with a straight games demolition of world No. 2 Jan O Jorgensen in the men's singles.
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy registered fighting victories in the last eight contests at the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Basel on Friday.
Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy sailed into the pre-quarter-finals, but it was heartbreak for Parupalli Kashyap in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Don't do any strange things in preparation ahead of Olympics, Gopichand's advise to shuttlers
Here's your complete guide to when India's athletes compete at the Paris Olympics, with dates, events, and timings in IST.
Indian ace shuttler HS Prannoy produced a remarkable performance as he breezed past Malaysia's Joo Ven Soong to progress through to the second round of the China Masters here on Tuesday.
Top seed K Srikanth suffered a straight-games defeat, but three other Indians, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, advanced to the second round of the US $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Tuesday.
India's HS Prannoy continued his dream run and reached the men's singles final to be just one step away from clinching his maiden title in the $50,000 Vietnam Open Grand Prix at Ho Chi Minh City.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
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.
Sourabh Verma and Ajay Jayram also entered the second round
H S Prannoy outwitted World No 2 and title favourite Kidambi Srikanth in a thrilling final to win the men's singles title at the 82nd Senior National Championship, in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Srikanth had last reached the quarterfinals at the Singapore Open in April.
Saina offered her support to PV Sindhu's decision to seek a change in her training approach.
India will send 117 athletes to the Paris Olympics, starting July 26 in the French capital. This will be India's second-biggest contingent at an Olympic Games after 121 athletes went to Tokyo in 2021. A total of 47 female and 70 male athletes will be part of the Indian contingent at the Games.
Celebrations had already begun at BJP headquarters before the full announcement of results.
HS Prannoy had almost given up on winning his next title and breaking a six-year long drought before chief national coach Pullela Gopichand instilled in him the belief.
Indian shuttlers had a bad day in office as Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy failed to cross the opening hurdle at the prestigious All England Championship in Birmingham on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old said adjusting to shuttle movement in a place near to the sea is different and he expects similar conditions in Paris, where he will travel on July 22.
Two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saina Nehwal continued her impressive run, progressing into the women's singles semi-finals with a straight-game win over unseeded Korean Lee Jang Mi at the Asia Badminton Championship in Wuhan, on Friday.
Despite clinching the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title last week, Indian shuttler H S Prannoy slipped three places to World No 27 in the latest BWF rankings released on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu entered the second round, but it was a disappointing day for India's men as two of them made an early exit from the Malaysia Open Super Series Premier badminton, in Shah Alam, on Wednesday.
A fit-again P Kashyap of India resumed his journey in international badminton by notching up a comfortable win, while H S Prannoy and Ajay Jayaram also advanced to the second round of Indonesia Grand Prix Gold in Balikpapan, Indonesia on Wednesday.
The core of the team remains the same with HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in good form and the Indian team would hope the rub of the green also goes their way when it begins campaign on Thursday.
Parupalli Kashyap continued his impressive run to advance to the semi-finals of the Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament, even as young H S Prannoy was left ruing his luck as a foot injury forced him to concede his quarter-final, on Friday.
PV Sindhu had a below-par outing as Japan's Akene Yamaguchi beat the World Championship silver medallist 21-14, 21-9 in a thoroughly one-sided semi-final of the French Open Super Series, in Paris, on Saturday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched up contrasting wins to progress to the Round of 16, but World No. 11 H S Prannoy suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Brazilian Ygor Coelho to bow out of the World Championship.
A look at how India's athletes fared on Day 2, on Sunday, July 28, 2024:
While Saina made short work of USA's Beiwan Zhang, second seed Sindhu had to dig deep to get the better of Japanese Sayaka Sato.
Satwik and Chirag, ranked sixth in the world, will face the winner of the other semi-final between Indonesia's Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan and second seeds Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh of Malaysia in their maiden World Tour Super 1000 final.
Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the men's singles second round with a stunning win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen.
Lakshya Sen moved a place to world number 17, despite not competing in the last two weeks.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth moved into the quarter-finals of Japan Open badminton tournament after registering contrasting wins but it was curtains for H S Prannoy.
Facing each other for the first time in seven months after their heated Denmark Open semifinal clash, the double Olympic medalist Indian reeled off five successive points to take the opening game.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu progressed to the quarter-finals of the All England Championship with a hard-fought win over Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in women's singles, in Birmingham.
Kiran George lost to World champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday.
India's shuttlers continued their good run at the Canada Open. Six singles players, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, qualified for the quarter-finals in the US $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances