Saina Nehwal staged a splendid recovery to enter the third round of the World Badminton Championships at the Pierre de Coubertin stadium in Paris on Wednesday. The world No 2 Indian ace, seeded second, got the better of Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei 20-22, 21-15, 21-8.
Star shuttler Saina Nehwal would have rejuvenated after a one and a half month break following the IBL. The defending champion will now eye her maiden title of the season.
Saina Nehwal made a rampaging start to her London Olympics build-up by winning the Thailand Open last week and the Indian ace will now look to test her game against the Chinese when she starts her campaign in the Indonesia Super Series Premier in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The enormity of her achievement has gradually started sinking in, but for Saina Nehwal, standing on the podium and receiving an Olympic medal, still feels like a dream.
Top seed Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Asian Badminton Championship after losing her semi-final match against Chinese qualifier Xuerui Li, bringing down the curtains on the Indian challenge at the event in New Delhi on Saturday.
Confident after winning a bronze medal at the World Badminton Championships, fast rising shuttler P V Sindhu says she is ready to take on her celebrated compatriot Saina Nehwal at the inaugural Indian Badminton League.
Saina Nehwal beat Scotland's Susan Egelstaf on Tuesday, to book a spot in the final of the badminton event in the Commonwealth Games.
Riding on her stupendous performance at the prestigious All England Championship, India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has regained the world number two spot again in the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation.
All-England and World champion Carolina Marin beat Indian ace Saina Nehwal to win the 'Female Player of the Year' award in Dubai on Monday night. Besides, Saina, Marin, who won five World Superseries titles, held off competition from China's Zhao Yunlei and Bao Yixin.
Assured of atleast a bronze at the World Badminton Championship, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal described her quarterfinal win as "special" and said patience was the key to her success.
Saina Nehwal continued her irresistible form to claim her third straight title in as many weeks. The Indian ace won the Indonesia Open badminton Super Series in Jakarta on Sunday, beating Japan's Sayaka Sato 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the final.
The Indian ace, who attained a career-best No 1 after winning the India Open at the end of March, dropped a rung in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, released on Thursday. Defeat in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open Super Series Premier to reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China saw the London Olympics bronze medallist drop to No 2.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal reached the women's singles semi-finals with a comfortable straight-game win, but compatriot P V Sindhu failed to cross the quarterfinal hurdle in the $750,000 Star Australian Super Series, in Sydney on Friday.
Saina Nehwal jumped seven spots to reach a career best ranking of 27.
Saina Nehwal went down fighting to third seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong 21-17, 13-21, 16-21.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Saina Nehwal crossed the first hurdle comfortably but highlight of the day for the Indians came when Ajay Jayaram registered a stunning victory over world number seven Tien Minh Nguyen to sent him crashing out of Japan Super Series in straight-games in Tokyo.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will promote Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers after she was made brand ambassador of the media group which owns the team. The 20-year-old Hyderabadi signed a three-year deal with Deccan Chronicle at a glittering function in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Saina Nehwal has set such high standards that even a minor dip in form raises concerns, according to badminton legend Prakash Padukone, who believes the Indian shuttler will soon be back to her winning ways.
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.
The Indian challenge ended in the French Super Series badminton tournament after Saina Nehwal and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out following defeats in the quarter-finals in Paris. Eighth seed Saina squandered a first game lead and went down to top seed Chinese Wang Lin 21-15, 11-21, 15-21 in a 49-minute battle in the women's singles on Friday.
Reader Saurav sent us this photograph from Hyderabad.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has been nominated for the 2012 Female Player of the Year Award of the Badminton World Federation on the back of an impressive performance in the season which had seen her win a bronze medal in London Olympics.
Asked about Saina Nehwal, whose 2012 London Games bronze medal winning show was a path breaker for Indian women's badminton, Padukone is confident that the 26-year-old former World number one will be regain her best form.
Far from mourning the end of her brief reign as the world number one, shuttler Saina Nehwal is happy that she at least made it to where no other non-Chinese could reach in the last four years.
Saina Nehwal made a disappointing return to the court, crashing to a first round defeat in the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament in Tokyo on Wednesday. However, P Kashyap kept Indian hopes alive by advancing to the pre-quarter-finals.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has jumped one place to the eighth spot, while a place in the finals of the Indian Open Super Series catapulted the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju to the elite top 10 bracket.
The London Olympics bronze medallist displaced Spain's Carolina Marin, who defeated her in the women's final of the World Championships in Jakarta last Sunday.
World No 1 Saina Nehwal is all set to defend her women's singles title at the Australian Open super series .
Indian shuttlers had a bad day at the French Super Series, as Saina Nehwal and three others lost in the second round, in Paris, on Thursday.
Manika Batra, who has become toast of the nation after her sensational run at the Gold Coast Games, is hoping that she has done enough to spark a table tennis revolution in India like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu did for badminton.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
Saina Nehwal's hopes of winning her maiden 'World Super Series Finals title this year went up in smoke as she lost her semi-final clash against top seed and current Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China in a three-game encounter.
Saina Nehwal finally got her passport renewed after much dilly-dallying by the authorities, clearing her way to participate in the World Super Series Masters Badminton final in Malaysia from December 18. Saina had qualified for the Yonex Sunrise World super Series Masters finals starting on Thursday after two of the Chinese shuttlers pulled out of the event, making way for the Hyderabadi girl to participate in the prestigious event.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out after a first-round defeat, but P Kashyap and Anand Pawar kept India's hopes afloat, wining their opening men's singles matches in the Asian Badminton Championship in Suwon, Korea, on Wednesday. World No 8 and seventh seed Saina put up a brave effort but eventually ran out of steam against defending champion Jiang Yanjiao of China, losing 21-14, 14-21, 12-21 in a 40-minute battle in the women's singles.
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.
In the absence of top Chinese shuttlers, Indian ace Saina Nehwal has been seeded number one and handed a relatively easy draw in the upcoming Yonex Sunrise Indian Open badminton tournament, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from April 23-28.
Saina Nehwal, a bronze medallist in 2012 London Olympics, dropped a place to be at ninth position, while P V Sindhu retained her 11th spot in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings issued on Thursday.
She is inching closer to being among the world's top five and is tipped to be number one in the next couple of years but ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal says being numero uno is still a very distant dream.
Upbeat over winning the China Open and moving up to the fourth spot in the latest BWF rankings, star shuttler Saina Nehwal says she is working on becoming the best in the world.
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