'Saina and Sindhu are top contenders, but they will have to beat players who are playing solid badminton at this juncture.'
The Rio Olympic Games got off to a shambolic start on Saturday as fans queued for hours at security checkpoints to enter venues, with some missing their events and many athletes competing in front of eerily empty stands. Games organisers apologised for dropping the ball on the first day of full competition, the morning after a dazzling opening ceremony, as iconic venues such as beach volleyball on the famed Copacabana beach saw only a few hundred spectators.
Nick Kyrgios has defended compatriot Bernard Tomic against allegations of failing to try during a match and said it was up to the Australian Olympic Committee whether the pair were picked to represent the country at the Rio Olympics.
Yulia Stepanova, the key whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal that almost led to her country being completely excluded from the Rio de Janeiro Games, will miss the Olympics after the runner was controversially ruled out due to her doping past.
'We used to give these boxers a hammering in the ring and now they are teaching youngsters how to defend. Come on man!' 'People like Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar were among the top boxers in the world, but instead of choosing them to train young boxers they are picking people who are yes men.'
Struggling Indian shuttler PV Sindhu lost to her old nemesis Carolina Marin of Spain in three games in an ill-tempered semifinal of the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament, which saw both players receive yellow cards for verbal exchanges, in Odense on Saturday.
PV Sindhu won Swiss Open title after beating Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in final
Britain's Andy Murray enjoyed a routine win over Argentina's Juan Monaco to ease into the third round of the tennis tournament at the Rio Games on Tuesday, while Spain's world number nine David Ferrer was knocked out.
Rafael Nadal reached the Olympic Games quarter-finals on Thursday, winning the first of 10 matches he will need to sweep in just four days if he is to secure triple Rio gold. The 2008 champion defeated Gilles Simon 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 for his eighth win over the Frenchman in nine meetings. Nadal, a 14-time major winner, is playing in his first tournament in two months after a wrist injury caused an early withdrawal from the French Open.
>There's still hope and plenty to play for, says Rediff.com's Aruneel Sadadekar.
Britain's Jack Laugher and Chris Mears dethroned reigning champions China to claim their country's first ever diving gold medal in the men's 3 metre springboard event on Wednesday.
Brazil has long been known as a country that can throw a great party as long as the guests do not mind a location that still has the builders in it.
Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flag bearer at closing ceremony at Tokyo Games on August 8.
Damaging wind gusts, a fresh doping controversy and the robbery of a visiting government minister presented the Rio Games with a perfect storm of problems on Sunday, forcing organisers to scramble to keep the world's biggest sporting event rolling on.
Rafael Nadal has conceded he is not yet sure that he will be able to represent Spain at the Rio Olympics as his fitness concerns linger.
The triumphs of Czech great Emil Zatopek will be celebrated in Rio de Janeiro with dozens of pairs of electric-powered life-sized legs created by artist David Cerny.
A scarcity of gold medals in the first few days of the Olympics is leading China to reflect on its past obsession with finishing first, amid agreement that being champion is no longer everything.
India's double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu failed to reach the women's singles summit clash after going down fighting to Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in three games at the French Open badminton tournament Paris on Saturday.
Four years after a bronze at London Games made her the toast of the nation, Saina Nehwal will once again carry a billion hopes when she along with the other six shuttlers, including doubles exponent Jwala Gutta, begin their campaign at the Rio Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, on Thursday.
World number two Dustin Johnson has become the latest golfer to withdraw from next month's Rio Olympics due to fears over the Zika virus.
The Indian women's hockey team will return to the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years as it qualified for next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, on Saturday, after England made it to the final of the ongoing EuroHockey Championships in London.
Having played just one tournament since mid-September due to various injuries and a recent bout of flu, Serena Williams is now itching to get back into competition with the Rio Olympics among her top priorities for the year.
With the athletes bidding goodbye to Paris after another bone-tingling edition of the Olympics, Norma Astrid Godinho/Rediff.com, shares some interesting nuggets that made the Paris Olympics an event to remember!
Check out India's report card on the third day of the 2016 Olympics.
Rio rides high on success even before US release.
National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu says the four-year-long administrative logjam cannot escape blame for all that has gone wrong with the once flourishing sport.
Tennis super star Sania Mirza is geared up to represent the country in next month's Olympics but she refused to predict winning a medal in the Rio Games.
South Sudanese Olympic athlete Guor Marial may not be a hot medal tip for Sunday's marathon, but the former slave's road to Rio is one of the most astonishing stories of the games.
Meet first-time Indian athletes hoping to make an impression in Rio.
The fire broke out at Ninho do Urubu, a state-of-the-art training centre that was expanded and opened only two months ago.
India's PV Sindhu scripted history by becoming the first Indian shuttler to reach the final at the Olympics when she shocked Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in straight games in the women's singles at the Rio Games on Thursday.
Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with 18 gold medals among his career haul of 22, will carry the US flag in Friday's opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.
Russia said on Friday it is ready to do everything from a legal point of view to defend Russian athletes if they are banned from taking part in the Rio Olympics over doping allegations.
P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen sailed into the second round but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth on a mixed day for India at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Wednesday.
A series of recent scandals engulfing officials working on the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games
US Open: Serena ready for Svitolina challenge
Indian golfers SSP Chawrasia and Anirban Lahiri were placed tied 22nd and joint 57th after posting two-under 69 and four-over 75 respectively in the third round of the Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
'We really hope that Sharapova will still be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games.'
Rory McIlroy took a long time to decide he would represent Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympics but the 27-year-old world number three could now miss golf's return to the Games after a 112-year absence because of concerns over the Zika virus.
Sindhu beat fourth seeded Blichfeldt 22-20, 21-10 in 43 minutes
