India's hopes of fetching five badminton medals at the Commonwealth Games suffered a massive jolt on Friday as ace shuttler and defending champion Saina Nehwal pulled out of the Glasgow event.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal survived a scare from lower-ranked Japanese Nozomi Okuhara to advance to the semi-finals of the women's singles in the Malaysian Super Series, in Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. The top seeded Indian lost the second game 14-21, after winning the first 21-11, but with Nozomi retiring early in the third, she cemented a place into the last four.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Sunday said India has adequate infrastructure for badminton but don't have enough coaches and academies. "There is no problem on infrastructure front, but what we don't have enough number of academies and coaches, like the Chinese have," she told PTI. Saina has been practising in Bengaluru after recovering from a knee injury which had affected her progress at Rio Olympics. She had lost her second group match against Ukraine's Maria Ulitina to crash out of the mega event.
H S Prannoy stunned the legendary Lin Dan of China while compatriot Sameer Verma pipped Rasmus Gemke of Denmark to advance to the second round of the Indonesia Open badminton event.
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.
It was day of mixed results for India at the US$750,000 Denmark Open Super Series in in Odense on Friday, as Kidambi Srikanth fought back brilliantly to shock World No 1 Victor Axelsen and enter the semis after Saina Nehwal crashed out of the event following her quarter-final loss to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.
India's Saina Nehwal thrashed Olympic silver medallist Yihan Wang of China to storm into the semi-finals of the All England badminton championships in Birmingham.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday congratulated badminton sensation Saina Nehwal for winning the Indonesian Open Super Series at Jakarta, her third international title on a row.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
One of the most awaited matches of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL) turned out to be a damp squib as Saina Nehwal trampled PV Sindhu 21-19, 21-8 at the Siri Fort Complex.
The World No. 2 had pulled out of Badminton Asia Team Championships because of injury earlier this month, and also exempted herself from participating in the Lucknow Open and South Asian Championships to work on her fitness.
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.
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.
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal clinched the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier tournament after beating young Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the summit clash, in Fuzhou, China, on Sunday.
Saina Nehwal continued to gain in confidence ahead of Olympics as the top-seeded Indian entered the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold final after outlasting local favourite Porntip Buranaprasertsuk with a straight-game win in Bangkok on Saturday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the quarter-finals with a straight games win, but Chetan Anand bit the dust in the singles event of the Malaysian Super Series tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal, in a video message, has silently appealed to her country to look at the Indian Olympic contingent as one team rather than a group of individual athletes.
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.
In an interview with PTI, the Hyderabadi also reveals why she parted ways with the former All England champion and throws light on the Padma controversy.
It was a day of mixed results for India as B Sai Praneeth sailed into the final with a straight-game win but Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal's campaign ended in the semi-final of the $120000 Thailand Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Bangkok on Saturday.
Take a look at what fit-again Saina needs to do before going into the Olympic Games in August this year.
Fresh from her Indonesian Open Super Series triumph, Saina Nehwal stormed into the pre-quarter-finals of Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a straight games victory over Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand in Johor Bahru on Wednesday. Second seed Saina needed less than half an hour to send Buranaprasertsuk packing with a 21-18, 22-20 victory in her opening round match.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal survived a scare from Hye Youn Hwang of Korea before reaching the semi-finals of the Indonesian Open Super Series in Jakarta on Friday. The world No 8 Indian ace beat the 18th-ranked Hwang 21-7, 13-21, 21-15 in a tough women's singles quarter-final that lasted 45 minutes. Sixth-seed Saina next faces seventh seeded Chinese Lan Lu in the Saturday's semi-finals.
Star India shuttler Saina Nehwal has signed a two-year deal with leading sports management group, IOS Sports & Entertainment. IOS will now manage Saina's endorsements, appearances, brand profiling, patents, licensing and digital rights, images and visibility on social networking sites.
Saina Nehwal once again faltered at the semi-final stage as she suffered a straight game defeat at the hands of China's Wang Yihan in the women's singles at the Asia Badminton Championships, in Wuhan, China, on Saturday.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal upstaged Korea's Sung Ji Hyun to reach the semi-finals but it was curtains for P V Sindhu in the women's singles of the India Open Super Series, in New Delhi, on Friday.
World No. 1 Saina Nehwal started her campaign with a hard-fought win, while P V Sindhu eased past her opponent at the $200,000 Badminton Asia Championship.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal started her season on a winning note, dispatching little known German Nicole Grether in straight games to enter the second round of Malaysian Super Series badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and Olympian Anup Sridhar advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Singapore Open Super Series even as three other Indians were shown the door on Wednesday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal survived some anxious moments before getting past qualifier Maja Tvrdy of Slovenia in a thrilling three-game opening tie at the Singapore Open Super Series on Wednesday.
Tata group has been a constant in India's sporting landscape and the conglomerate's involvement only grew under Ratan Tata.
Saina Nehwal defeated 2011 World champion and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Yihan Wang 21-8, 21-12 in just over half an hour in the semi-finals.
Indian shuttlers endured a disappointing day at the China Open Super Series Premier with star player Saina Nehwal going down in the women's singles second round while Parupalli Kashyap crashed out of the men's singles competition in Shanghai.
India's Saina Nehwal bowed out of the Yonex Korea Super Series losing to Indonesia's Adrianti Firdasari in the second round, while mixed doubles duo of V Diju and Gwala Gutta upset the top seed to move into the quarter-finals in Seoul on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal was stunned by Germany's Juliane Schenk in the women's singles semifinals, as India's campaign came to an end in the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament in Tokyo on Saturday.
The sixth seeded Indian ace beat seventh seed Chinese Lan Lu 25-23, 21-19 to set up a title clash with Chinese third-seed Lin Wang in Sunday's final. World number three Lin beat eighth-seed Xingfang Xie 21-19, 21-13 in the other semi-final.
Saina Nehwal shrugged off her opening match disappointment to become the first Indian shuttler to reach the semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters Finals when she defeated Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia in the group league stage, in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
India's campaign in the Aviva Singapore Super Series came to an end on Friday after both Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar lost their respective quarter-finals. Tournament sixth-seed Saina went down 21-19, 19-21, 14-21 to China's Wang Lin in the women's singles while qualifier Sridhar's dream run was cut short by Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana. The Indian lost 11-21, 8-21.
Saina Nehwal, who underwent a knee surgery at a Mumbai hospital, is likely to be out of action for four months in a big setback for the badminton star, her father Harvir Singh said on Saturday.
