Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal may have hit global headlines with their big wins against China's superstars of badminton but sadly they have not made it into the state-run Chinese media, which played down their herculean achievement.
Saina Nehwal is a 'champion material' and in another three years, India can look forward to seeing a world number one in the Hyderabadi youngster, said legendary shuttler Prakash Padukone. Padukone, a former All England champion, pointed out that 17-year-old Saina has most of the qualities a champion needs -- physical, technical, mental and self-belief.
Saina Nehwal bagged her first title of the year, clinching the Swiss Open Grand Prix gold trophy with a straight-games victory over Ji Hyun Sung of Korea in the final in Switzerland on Sunday.
Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal clarified that his ministry received the letter of nomination of badminton star Saina Nehwal for the Padma Bhushan on Saturday.
Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching the maximum prize of 100,000$, while Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for a whopping 95,000$ and 80,000$ respectively at the rechristened Premier Badminton League (PBL) players' auction on Monday.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal inched closer to a third successive Indonesian Open Super Series title after advancing to the finals with a hard-fought victory over Chinese Taipei's Shao Chieh Cheng in Jakarta on Saturday.
Marin retained the world title with a 21-16, 21-19 win over the Indian ace.
The Indian challenge at the Thailand Open Grand Prix ended after ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and two others suffered contrasting defeats in the quarter-finals in Bangkok on Friday. Top seed Saina failed to live up to reputation and lost her women's singles match 13-21, 12-21 to seventh seed Xuerui Li of China in 30 minutes.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, who regained the number one spot in international rankings, said it was a big achievement for her.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal and World number five Kidambi Srikanth were among the nine Indian shuttlers who entered the quarter-finals of the singles events at the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Lucknow.
Saina Nehwal played her heart out but lost to world number six Chen Wang of Hong Kong in an edge-of-the-seat semi-final of the World Super Series Masters Final in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
After the high of last week's Chinese Taipei Open triumph, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal hit a low as she crashed out of the Japan Super series Badminton tournament with a straight-game defeat in the first round in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will return to Great Britain with a renewed hope of clinching the prestigious All England title but a tough draw awaits her in the women's singles of the Super Series Premier event, which starts with the qualifiers in Birmingham on Tuesday.
The sagging morale of Indian contingent at the London Games got a much-needed boost when key medal contenders Saina Nehwal,Vijender Singh and Jai Bhagwan began their respective campaigns with a bang.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal advanced to the semi-finals of the All-England Badminton Championships with a hard-fought victory over sixth seeded Chinese Shixian Wang on Friday. The second seeded Indian ace, who got the better of Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia in the previous round, won 23-21, 19-21, 21-16 in 30 minutes.
Arvind Bhatt kept India's flag flying in the tournament, moving into the second round of the men's singles with a straight games victory. He was at his ruthless best while demolishing Wee Chung Pei of Malaysia 21-9, 21-13 to set up a second round clash against Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic.
After a highly successful 2012, Saina Nehwal will look to start the new year on a winning note when she takes the court at the season-opening Korea Super Series Premier badminton tournament at Seoul on Wednesday.
As the season is drawing to a close, Saina Nehwal would look to end the Super Series title drought when the Denmark Open gets underway at Odense with the qualifiers on Tuesday.
The Tata Open badminton championship received a setback after Beijing-bound shuttlers Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal deciding to skip the event to be held in Mumbai from Sunday. With the Olympics just two weeks away, Anup, who strained his ankle last week during a practice session, opted out of the tournament as a precautionary measure before the Beijing Games.
Ace shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand will spearhead the Indian challenge in the badminton event of the Delhi Commonwealth Games, from October 3 to 14. The Badminton Association of India on Thursday announced a 10-member squad, including five women, for the Games.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who won five major titles last year, has been voted as the third best Badminton Player of the Year 2010 by readers of an international magazine in a recent poll.
The quarter-final ouster in World Championship is a thing of past for ace shuttler Saina Nehwal whose only target is now to clinch a medal for the country in next month's Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi.
Saina Nehwal lit up another gloomy day for India at the Olympics by storming into the women's singles semi-finals, even as shooting medal hope Ronjan Sodhi fell by the wayside on Thursday. The ace shuttler exhibited excellent court-craft and unflinching attitude to defeat senior opponent and two-time All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark 21-15, 22-20 in a pulsating quarter-final clash that lasted 37 minutes.
On a sweet-sour day for India, Saina Nehwal crashed out of the women's singles but the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju earned a shot at the World Super Series Masters title, in Johor Bahru.
An erratic Saina Nehwal let slip an early advantage to go down to World No 1 Wang Yihan in the summit clash of the BWF season-ending World Super Series Finals in Liuzhou, China on Sunday.
The India ace proved too good for Jie Liu of China into the girls' singles semi-finals at the World Junior Badminton Championships.
India's campaign at the All England Badminton Championships came to a disappointing end with Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma all exiting from the tournament in Birmingham on Friday.
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal attained a new high as she climbed to a career-best second in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.
Saina dropped two spots to third in the women's singles list, and is placed below Spaniard Carolina Marin (80752), who rose a rung following her Australian Open title triumph.
Saina Nehwal beat local favourite Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari 21-12, 21-14 while compatriot Anup Sridhar went down fighting 21-23, 21-9, 21-14 to world number 16 Joachim Persson of Denmark in the first round.
The Andhra players respectively won the boys and girls' singles crowns in the National Junior Open badminton championships.
India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a shock straight-game defeat at the hands of world number 12 Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in the semifinal to crash out of the Malaysia Open Super Series in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who had a disappointing Asian Games, rose a rung to reclaim a career-high second spot after 13 weeks in the latest Badminton World Federation rankings.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was the lone bright spot for India, entering the semi-finals of the Asian Badminton Championships in Delhi even as all other Indians crashed out in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Rio Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu jumped two places to achieve her career-best ranking of seven, while Saina Nehwal was also back in the top 10, in the latest BWF World Ranking.
Hyderabad Hotshots stormed into the final of the inaugural Indian Badminton League after a convincing 3-0 victory over Pune Pistons in the first semi-final in Hyderabad, on Wednesday.
Saina Nehwal is better equipped to win a medal in Rio in August than the Indian shuttler was when she claimed a bronze at the London Olympics four years ago, former All England champion Prakash Padukone said.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal remained on course for her second title of the season as she reached the semi-finals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold with a straight-games victory over Sapsiree Taerattanachai in Bangkok on Friday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slipped a rung from her career-best position of world No 2 in the latest international badminton rankings released on Thursday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal survived a scare from lower-ranked Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand before reaching the second round of the All England Championship in Birmingham.
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