Unheralded Indian Subhankar Dey shocked multiple time World and Olympic champion Lin Dan 22-20, 21-19 to enter the quarter-finals of the SaarLorLux Open Badminton Championship.
PV Sindhu jumped two places to grab the ninth spot, while former World No. 1 Saina, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from a serious injury, slipped five places to 11th spot.
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.
HS Prannoy playws a pivotal role in India's epic triumph by winning the decisive third singles against Malaysia and Denmark
India's shuttlers, as expected, made a good start at the Commonwealth Games. They proved a class above Sri Lanka in a preliminary round mixed team event match, in Gold Coast, on Thursday. Spearheaded by Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth in singles, India won 5-0.
Sindhu had resumed training last month under the supervision of Korean coach Park Tae-Sang after the Sports Authority of India
Indian contingent has an opportunity to go deep in the draw and recapture the trophy which has been won by just two Indians so far -- the legendary Prakash Padukone (1980) and P Gopichand (2001).
Riding on her title-triumph at the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold, India's P V Sindhu, on Thursday, jumped one place to be just outside the top 10 in the latest BWF ranking.
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.
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.
Check out the BEST Images from Day 7 of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
Former World No 1 Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, lost 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 to World No 2 Yamaguchi in a 50-minute women's singles clash.
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.
'If we have one dedicated coach to train 50-100 coaches who can go back and coach their wards, that will be a very good move'
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
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.
A summary of Indian athletes' performances on Sunday, August 7, Day 10 of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Rising player Lakshya Sen went down to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus
World championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen entered his maiden World Tour Super 500 summit clash on Saturday with a come-from-behind win over Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open in New Delhi.
Both enter finals in Singles of the Swiss Open
Rediff.com gives you a glimpse of the personalities that graced the event:
A look at the historic achievements by India's athletes in 2022.
Vijayveer Sidhu, 16, shot a gold in the 25m standard pistol event for junior men after combining with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu and Adarsh Singh to claim the team gold on the last day of the ISSF World Championships.
Sakshi Malik ended India's frustrating medal drought with a dramatic bronze-winning effort on Day 12 of the Rio Olympic Games on Wednesday.
Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a bad patch, having lost six times in the first round this season.
A summary of Indian athletes' performance on Day 7 of the Games.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
India's top-five finish not a given this time
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.
Rediff.com introduces you to the athletes who have brought India glory in Birmingham.
Indian shuttler HS Prannoy stunned reigning Olympic champion Lin Dan of China while Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap also crossed the opening hurdle to enter the second round of the USD 275,000 French Open Super Series.
A summary of Indian athletes showing on Friday, Day 8 of the Commonwealth Games.
The left-hander nominated nine people, including his Uttar Pradesh teammates Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, India hockey goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, Board of Control for Cricket in India vice-president Rajeev Shukla, singers Shreya Ghosal and Sonu Nigam to take forward the Challenge and urged them to continue the campaign.
Confident about their preparation for the upcoming World Championships, India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand said the home shuttlers have the best chance of winning multiple medals at the prestigious tournament next month.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal started her campaign on a positive note, advancing to the second round of the women's singles competition but it was curtains for Parupalli Kashyap and K Srikanth in the men's singles category of the All England championship in London.
India's Saina Nehwal lost to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying 21-16, 18-21, 21-14 and was knocked out of the BWF World Superseries Final in Dubai on Friday.
A record-smashing Mirabai Chanu and a perseverant P Gururaja claimed gold and silver respectively as weightlifters lived up to to the pre-event hype and delivered opening day medals for India at the 21st Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Thursday.
Looking back, the Indians had rubbed their hands in delight at the variety of marquee events at home the sporting calendar of 2017 offered, and they now look forward, with optimism and anticipation, to a challenging 2018.
The Indian men's team beat a depleted China 3-2 at the Badminton Asia Team Championships at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad
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.
