A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
India made a resounding start to their campaign at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold with four Indian shuttlers advancing to the second round of the men's singles competition, in Basel, on Wednesday.
Indian shuttlers had a relatively good day in office at the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament in Jakarta on Wednesday, with the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa and the men's team of Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy progressing to the second round.
Nehwal has had a troubled run in this year as she has now faced exits from a tournament in the first round five times.
Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth opened his campaign at the Thailand Masters badminton tournament with a straight game win over Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Fourth seeded Srikanth, who had claimed a silver medal at this year's Commonwealth Games, had to dig deep in his reservoir to outwit fellow Indian H S Prannoy 18-21, 30-29, 21-18 in a thrilling match, clocking an hour and seven minutes.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction saw some foreign names earning big bucks, headlined by Aussie all-rounder Cameron Green
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Expect some fireworks for the highly-versatile Cameron Green along with Quinton de Kock, Matheesha Pathirana, Venkatesh Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi.
Sameer Verma stayed on course for his title defence while three-time former champion Saina Nehwal too reached the semifinals with an easy win
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Srikanth held a 4-1 record over Prannoy coming into this match, but the shuttler was unable to deliver. Srikanth won the first game 21-13, but Prannoy won the second set comprehensively.
Ahead of the mini-auction, scheduled to be held in Doha on December 26, the 10 franchises have released their list of retained and released players.
In mixed doubles, the husband-wife Indian pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy defeated Malaysia's Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien 21-17, 21-19.
Olympic medallists P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal made a resounding start to their women's singles campaign but it was Sameer Verma who hogged the limelight with a stunning straight-game win over Korean Son Wan Ho in men's event in the opening round of the India Super Series in New Delhi on Wednesday.
COVID-19 is a stark reminder that man should now learn to respect nature and not tinker with it, says Indian shuttler Sameer Verma. The shuttler also felt that the coronavirus-forced break is an opportunity to fix mental weakness and that a six-week training regime should be good enough to regain match-fitness after normalcy returns.
International badminton players posted a video where they played different strokes while Bella Ciao, the theme song for Money Heist, plays in the background.
India's hopes of winning twin titles in the Hong Kong Open Super Series were dashed on Sunday when Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu and national champion Sameer Verma lost their respective final clashes in contrasting fashion in Hong Kong. Sindhu, aiming for her second successive Super Series title, lost 15-21 17-21 to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying in a 41-minute women's singles clash. Verma, on the other hand, went down 14-21 21-10 11-21 to local favourite Ng Ka Long Angus in a contest which lasted 50 minutes.
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
Srikanth lost 21-23, 8-21 to Korea's Chia Hao Lee, continuing his dismal run in international circuit this season.
Olympic medallist P V Sindhu is also missing in action as she recovers from an injury.
HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma are the men's singles players who have decided to withdraw while doubles specialists Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy have also opted out. Leading Indian women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal - both previous Olympic medallists - are making the trip to England, as are their male counterparts Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth.
While Sen needed just 40 minutes to advance Sameer Verma retired hurt against Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito at the end of the second game when the scoreline reading 16-21, 21-12 in another men's singles match.
Karthikeya Gulshan Kumar produced a thrilling performance
India's double Olympic medallist superstar PV Sindhu reached the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open Super 1000 tournament in Odense on Thursday after three hard-fought games against her opponent from Thailand.
Kidambi Srikanth staged a magnificent comeback to beat five-time World champion Lin Dan of China 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 and enter the men's singles quarter-finals at the Denmark Open on Thursday night. The No.6-ranked Indian ace will meet compatriot Sameer Verma on Friday.
Kidambi outperforms Sen, Sameer scores upset win
In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost 13-21, 12-21 to the Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping in the first round.
Defending champion Kidambi Srikanth beat compatriot Sameer Verma 22-20, 19-21, 23-21 in an absorbing men's singles quarter-final to enter the semi-finals of the Denmark Open, in Odense, on Friday night. The Indian ace will meet second seeded Japanese and world No 1 Kento Momota, who got the better of Thailand's Khosit Phetpradab 21-13, 21-9 in another quarter-final.
Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 49 minutes.
It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, as R M V Gurusaidutt, K Srikanth and c won their respective first round matches while others crashed out of the men's singles, in Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old Sen, the 2018 world junior championships silver-medallist, lost 13-21, 12-21 to Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand in a 32-minute contest.
However, the tournament was over for fourth seed Sameer Verma after he retired hurt against Ireland's Nhat Nguyen.
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.
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).
Delhiites continued to breathe toxic air on Tuesday as the air quality edged closer to the severe zone in some areas.
Placed at number 10 in the Race to Guanzhou rankings, Srikanth needed to win the tournament to have any hopes of qualifying for the season-ending World Tour Final in December.
India's Verma brothers -- Sourabh and Sameer -- advanced to the second round of the men's singles competition of the $120,000 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel would like to quickly forget the underwhelming performances of his side in home conditions and get their stuttering campaign back on track when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, who are teetering on the edge of elimination, in the IPL match in Hyderabad on Monday.
However, a tough contest awaits the former world No. 1 as he faces top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan next.
