Making a comeback after a three-month injury lay-off, Saina Nehwal struggled to make an impression as she went down to Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the first round of the China Open Super Series.
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).
Indian shuttler Anand Pawar powered his way to the main draw of the men's singles competition with a straight-game victory over German's Dieter Domke in the Denmark Super Series Premier tournament.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal is just one step away from retaining her women's singles title of the $ 120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament.
Rising player Lakshya Sen went down to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and newly-crowned world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the final in women's and men's singles badminton respectively at the 21st Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Indian athletes opened their campaign in the inaugural Youth Olympics on a disappointing note with most of them failing to get past the preliminary round and the lone weightlifter finishing fifth in Singapore on Sunday.
India will be sending full teams for the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold (May 30-June 4), Indonesia Open Super Series (June 12-18) and Australian Open Super Series (June 20-25).
Second seed PV Sindhu sailed into the women's singles quarter-finals with a comfortable win over Japan's Aya Ohori in the Hong Kong Open Superseries, in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Two-time champion and top seed Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu reached the pre-quarterfinals of the $ 120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold in Basel.
Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy will represent India in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the young shuttlers said they would settle for nothing less than a gold in the inaugural edition of mega-event starting on August 13.
Indian challenge ended at the $275,000 French Open Super Series badminton tournament after top seed Saina Nehwal suffered a straight game defeat to Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-finals in Paris.
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad will begin her campaign against China's Li Xuerui, a former Olympic gold medallist and World No 1.
Srikanth, now ranked five, was placed seventh before the Malaysia Open, where he lost his last-four clash to the reigning Asian champion Kento Momota.
This is the second time in her career, after April 6 this year that Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu has occupied the second spot on the leaderboard.
Riding on his back-to-back Super Series triumphs, India's ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth broke back into the top-10 at eighth in the latest world rankings.
Newly-crowned Korea Open champion P V Sindhu dished out another splendid performance edging past Japan's Minatsu Mitani for the second time in as many weeks to reach the second round of the women's singles at the Japan Open Super Series, in Tokyo, on Wednesday.
Early exits at Japan Open and Denmark Open proved costly for ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal as she lost her World No.1 crown to All England and World champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals of the $55,000 Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament after notching up contrasting victories in the men's singles competition in Calgary, Canada.
Saina Nehwal sailed past Indonesia's Hana Ramadhini 21-15, 21-12 for her maiden entry into the semi-finals at the India Open Super Series, while giant-killer H S Prannoy and RMV Gurusaidutt went down fighting in the quarter-finals at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, in Delhi, on Friday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Ace Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal on Thursday stormed into the quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships after their straight-game victories over their respective opponents in the women's singles event in Birmingham.
When Biocon chairperson Kiran Majumdar-Shaw - well known for raising issues ranging from lack of civic services in Bengaluru to climate change - decided to take on the Indian stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), she forced the Indian corporate world and legal community to take notice. In an interview to Business Standard, Majumdar-Shaw called a Sebi order to impose a fine on insider trading charges against a Biocon employee and an external consultant an "Agatha Christie" fiction, which destroyed the reputation of "innocent people". "The order is pure harassment and has caused huge reputational damage to us and goes against the principles of good governance promised by this government," Mazumdar-Shaw said. "We will certainly appeal this," she added.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton tournament in Basel.
Sindhu, who is currently competing at the French Open in Paris, jumped one rung to stay one spot behind Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who continues to dominate the rankings.
NDTV will become a full time infotainment and entertainment channel
H S Prannoy had things his way as he beat Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men's singles quarter-finals at the French Open Super Series badminton tournament, in Paris, on Friday.
The filmmaker tied the knot with stylist Aarti Patkar on January 6.
'Fall in line or you will be in the line of fire.'
The other Indian shuttlers who participated in the singles events of the Super 1000 tournament have already left Thailand while the doubles players will fly out on Monday.
Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap advanced to the main draw of the men's singles competition of Japan Super Series after registering twin victories in the two rounds of the qualifiers in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap emerged as the lone survivor at the Japan Open in an otherwise disappointing day for India as top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth made an early exit from the Super Series tournament in Tokyo, on Thursday.
It will not be a Saina Nehwal versus P V Sindhu final in the women's singles but the men's singles will be an all-Indian affair with P Kashyap and K Srikanth set to clash for the title at the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament, in Lucknow.
Rio-bound Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will look to boost their confidence ahead of the Olympic Games when they start their title defence at the Canada Open badminton tournament, starting in Calgary on Tuesday. 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallists, Jwala and Ashwini didn't have the best results in the run up to the Rio Olympics and the duo will look to put their best foot forward when they take the court here with just a little more than a month to go for the Games.
Saina Nehwal, who won a bronze at the World Championship, jumped four rungs to be placed at the 12th spot, while Kidambi Srikanth also improved two positions in the latest BWF World ranking.
Fifth seed Sindhu will now look to avenge her All England loss against Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, whom she faces next, while Srikanth will meet Thailand's Khosit Phetpradab on Thursday.
Shuttlers in the singles competition have to be inside top-16 of world rankings to qualify for the Olympics. The cut-off for doubles is also top-16.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
In an open letter, BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said the decision to go ahead with the All England Championships was made based on the best advice at that time. "It has been very disappointing to see some members of the badminton community speculate on the sincerity and motives of the BWF in this time of crisis," Lund wrote.
India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal's poor form in the international arena continued as she crashed out of the $300,000 Singapore Super Series after losing to Eriko Hirose of Japan in a hard-fought three-game battle in her opening round women's singles match in Singapore.
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