India have been drawn with top seeds and defending champions China, Thailand and hosts Finland for the upcoming Sudirman Cup badminton tournament, making it a tough Group A for the side to negotiate.
India's decision to field World No 13 Sameer instead of Kidambi Srikanth in men's singles backfired as the former couldn't get going against Lee Zii Jia, losing 13-21, 15-21 in 48 minutes to allow Malaysia level the scores 1-1 after getting the lead with a win the mixed doubles.
P V Sindhu, K Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, Subhankar Dey, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma scored easy first round singles victories, while the pair of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa shocked a fancied Malaysian pair to enter the second round of the women's doubles.
Sindhu, who is currently competing at the French Open in Paris, jumped one rung to stay one spot behind Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who continues to dominate the rankings.
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.
Top shuttler B Sai Praneeth and doubles player Dhruv Rawat have already pulled out after testing positive in the pre-departure testing.
Two-time Olympics medallist P V Sindhu opted out citing post-Olympics recovery.
Saina, who was looking good at the start of the season, was diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis with mild pancreatitis which affected her performance at the All England Championship.
Eight seeded Saina defetaed Okuhara 21-15, 21-14 late last night to improve her head-to-head record to 6-1 against her Japanese opponent.
Former champions P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarter-finals with easy victories, but the highlight of the third day's proceedings in the Yonex-Sunrise India Open badminton tournament was H S Prannoy's thrilling victory over Denmark's Jan Jorgensen.
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.
Former world No. 1 Saina, who missed a lot of tournaments last year due to multiple injuries, moved to the second round after her opponent, Czech Republic's Tereza Svabikova, suffered a back injury and retired mid-way while trailing 20-22, 0-1 in an opening round match.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal moved one place up to occupy the fifth spot while P V Sindhu remained unchanged at 10th in the latest Badminton World Federation Rankings issued on Thursday. Saina, who clinched her second Australian Open title earlier this month, exchanged places with Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, who now occupies the sixth spot in the women's singles list headed by Spain's Carolina Marin.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Sindhu leads India to 3-2 win over Hong Kong in Asia badminton Team Championship
The Indian women's badminton team crashed out of the Uber Cup after losing to Japan in the quarter-finals in Aarhus, Denmark on Thursday while the men completed their group engagements in the Thomas Cup with a defeat to China.
India's shuttlers, including London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, expressed shock after reports emerged that a sparring partner of the Taiwanese national team, who was in Birmingham during the All England Championship, tested positive for the coronavirus.
Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a bad patch, having lost six times in the first round this season.
The Indian men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reclaimed its position in the top 10 of the latest BWF rankings.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Srikanth, now ranked five, was placed seventh before the Malaysia Open, where he lost his last-four clash to the reigning Asian champion Kento Momota.
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma also advanced to the second round of the $550,000 tournament at the Barclaycard Arena.
Experienced drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh returned to India's men's hockey team, which also features debutant Jaskaran Singh, for the tour of Australia, starting May 10.
Fifth seeded Sindhu, who made early exits from China and Korea last month, has been pitted against Michelle Li, who remains a tricky customer despite the fact that Sindhu has a 5-2 head-to-head record against the world no 9 Canadian.
Rankireddy and Shetty, who created history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a BWF Super 500 tournament, are placed ninth in the men's doubles rankings issued on Tuesday.
Up against Shruti Mundada in the pre-quarters, Saina had a look at the surface and immediately made it clear that she won't risk playing on it given that the All England Championships are around the corner.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu is set to fly out of London on Sunday -- she will reach Bangkok via Doha.
US Open champion Prannoy, who had reached a career-best World No 11 ranking last week, improved a place further to grab the 10th spot. He has been rewarded for his consistent performance this season where he reached the semi-finals at the Indonesia Open and French Open.
Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu, K Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap reached the second round of Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after scoring easy victories in Lucknow.
Rising player Lakshya Sen went down to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus
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.
Despite clinching the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title last week, Indian shuttler H S Prannoy slipped three places to World No 27 in the latest BWF rankings released on Thursday.
A quarterfinal loss at the All England Championship saw Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slip three places down the rung to the sixth spot in the latest BWF world ranking on Thursday. Saina, who turned 26, went through injuries last year and missed out on a few tournaments this season, including the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and South Asian Games in January and February respectively. The Olympic bronze medallist, who had finished runners-up at the 2015 All England Championship, lost to Tai Tzu Ying in straight games in the quarterfinals. The Indian now has 73,222 points. Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu improved a place to reach the 11th spot.
India ace Kidambi Srikanth was rewarded for his sensational run this season as he grabbed a career-best ranking of World No. 2 after jumping two places in the latest BWF ranking released on Thursday.
National badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand, on Wednesday expressed happiness at the performance this year of Indian shuttlers and termed Kidambi Srikanth's feat of winning four Super Series titles as 'phenomenal'.
Indian ace shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after notching up contrasting victories in the men's singles competition of the $ 120,000 German Grand Prix Gold in Mulheim an der Ruhr.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
India's highest ranked male shutter, Kidambi Srikanth, pulled off an upset victory over former world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, but his team Bengaluru Hot Guns went down 2-3 to Hyderabad Hunters in the Premier Badminton League clash in Mumbai on Sunday.
Former India coach Anil Kumble is in the running for the Coach of the Year award in the inaugural edition of the Indian Sports Honours, instituted by the RP-SG Group in association with the foundation of skipper Virat Kohli.
