The lack of competitions before the Olympics is a major concern for Indian shuttlers but not so much for PV Sindhu, who trusts her Korean coach Park Tae Sang to create match situations for her in training itself.
Now all eyes are on the two Super 1000 events -- Yonex Thailand Open (January 12-17) and Toyota Thailand Open (January 19-24) as the world's best return to action following a prolonged break.
Shreyas Iyer continued with his red-hot form, smashing a stroke-filled 233 to lead Mumbai to a massive 602/4 declared in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match against Odisha.
Satwiksairaj and Ashwini showed top-notch fighting spirit before going down
In the absence of national regulars, the focus will shift on the likes of Rinku, who was surprisingly not picked for the first round despite having an impressive first-class record.
Sindhu' Hyderabad Hunters and Tai Tzu's Bengaluru Raptors can meet each other on January 31 in the third leg in Hyderabad.
Sindhu does not expect her prolonged pandemic-related absence to hamper her preparations for next year's rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.
Sindhu went down 15-21, 16-21 to the fourth seed
India's P V Sindhu squandered an 11-6 lead in the second game before going down 18-21, 21-18, 21-8 in 68 minutes to former world number one Akane Yamaguchi.
Women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal and men's skipper Manpreet Singh also wished the paralympians.
The sixth seed and world No. 6 Indian needed 42 minutes to get the better of Beiwin Zhang of the United States, ranked eight places below her, 21-14, 21-17.
As the Indian national anthem reverberated across the St Jakobshalle stadium, Sindhu stood at the podium with moist eyes.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are on a collision course at next week's World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, as they have been placed in the same half after the world governing body re-conducted the women's singles draw.
Treesa and Gayatri will be up against fourth-seeded Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Badminton is not as popular as cricket in India and therefore comparatively does not attract as many sponsors.
Sindhu had resumed training last month under the supervision of Korean coach Park Tae-Sang after the Sports Authority of India
World champion P V Sindhu frittered away a one-game lead and lost 21-16, 16-21, 19-21 to Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in 66 minutes.
Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the group stages after losing their respective second round matches in the BWF World Tour Finals, in Bangkok, on Thursday.
Wrestling has not missed a medal at the Olympics since 2008 and Sehrawat's effort ensured the streak remained unbroken.
Jwala says Sindhu should scan through all the videos of her past matches and work on her strategy.
Spinner Shams Mulani (5/71) and Himanshu Singh (4/77) wreaked havoc by sharing nine wickets between them as defending champions Mumbai crushed Odisha.
P V Sindhu urged everyone to make physical activity an integral part of their lives.
Rejuvenated after a month-long break from a hectic BWF schedule, Sindhu and Srikanth prevailed over Japanese shuttlers Aya Ohori and Kenta Nishimoto in women's and men's singles respectively.
This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year.
Sindhu, who had finished runner-up at the last edition in Dubai, dished out a superb game, mixing with patience with aggression, to edging the Japanese 24-22, 21-15.
A two-time bronze medallist at the World Championships, Sindhu has risen rapidly up the rankings since becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal, at the Rio Games last year.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
Meet India's top athletes at Olympics 2024.
PV Sindhu crashed out of the ongoing Thailand Open in the opening round
Sindhu beat the Thai 21-23, 21-13, 21-18 after a tough contest.
Pullela Gopichand called P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal -- his two most successful pupils -- as 'precious diamonds'.
Winning an elusive Olympic gold in Tokyo next year is PV Sindhu's top priority but reigning world champion's immediate target is to do well in the coming tournaments as this is the qualifying year for the quadrennial extravaganza.
Fellow Indian Kidambi Srikanth also jumped two places to sit at the 12th spot, while Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian male shuttler at world number 9.
This was Sindhu's second consecutive loss to Tzu Ying. Saina was no match for Carolina Marin, who took exactly half-an-hour to dispose of the Indian's challenge, beating her 8-21, 7-21.
India's Neeraj Chopra explains why he lost to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem in the Olympics men's Javelin Throw final.
It's high time we took fashion lessons from her.
Leading the congratulatory messages from the film industry for the ace shuttler were Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Now that Sindhu has joined the revenue service in the AP government, there are chances of her being inducted into the Indian Administrative Service seven or eight years down the line.
It was the meeting of two superstars as World champion PV Sindhu caught up with Tamil movie superstar Kamal Haasan in Chennai on Thursday.
The Indian saw off World No 3 Chen Yufei 21-19, 21-10 to enter her first final of the season.
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