London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the All-England Badminton Championships with a straight games victory over Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia, in London, on Thursday night. The world No 2 Indian ace won 21-16, 21-11 in 34 minutes to set up a meeting with sixth seeded Chinese Shixian Wang on Saturday.
Many believe the Thomas Cup victory can do for badminton what the 1983 World Cup triumph did for cricket in India.
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, Anand Pawar and Arvind Bhat reached the second round of the German Open badminton championship after notching up contrasting victories in their respective men's singles matches at Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
'I think for the next generation to come up, we need to put a system in place which actually identifies and nurtures talent. We have grown exponentially but there is lot more which needs to be done' 'It's not only my academy, all academies across the country are running full. There are many, many parents who want their kids to give up everything and concentrate on badminton'
Satwik and Chirag have looked in ominous form, winning the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, a Super 1000 crown in Indonesia, the Korea Open Super 500 and the Swiss Open super 300 last year before grabbing a a career-best ranking of World No.1, albeit for a brief time.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship in Glasgow on Tuesday.
The Indian ace was beaten by fourth seeded Mohammed Hafix Hashim of Malaysia in the quarter-finals at the Danish Open.
Badminton and cricket are two of his favourite sports. He was here with us for about an hour, Vimal Kumar said.
The women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China 18-21, 11-21.
"Sometimes, these small things affect a long match where you need extra energy," Gopichand said on Tuesday.
Kim Ji Hyun was handed the responsibility to sharpen the skills of former World No. 2 PV Sindhu with the World Championships and Olympics in mind.
India's P Kashyap pulled off a major upset, defeating third seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 21-9, 21-19 to storm into the men's singles quarter-finals of Denmark Open Super Series badminton championship in Odense on Friday.
Parupalli Kashyap booked a place in the pre-quarter-finals of the All-England Badminton Championships after a straight games victory over Jen Hao Hsu of Chinese Taipei on Thursday. The world No 9 Indian ace won his first round match 21-17, 21-18 in 43 minutes. He now runs into seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan.
Ravaged but resolute H S Prannoy focussed on increasing speed ahead of Paris Olympics
Indian shuttler Anand Pawar notched up a straight-game win over sixth seed Viktor Axelsen to join compatriot Ajay Jayaram in the pre-quarterfinals of the German Open badminton championship in M lheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
Indian men booked a berth in the Thomas Cup badminton finals by upsetting Hong Kong 3-2 while the eves had to bow out
Three-time champion Saina Nehwal is likely to clash with fellow Indian P V Sindhu in the women's singles second round of the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier in Jakarta next month.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of the All England Super Series badminton championship when she defeated German Juliane Schenk in straight games in the quarter-finals in London.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy capped off their impressive campaign with a historic title at the Swiss Open.
The 16-year-old from Gujarat was rewarded for last year's stellar run, which saw her win titles in three junior international tournaments. It enabled her rise three places and take the top position in the BWF junior rankings.
Indian shuttlers continued their impressive show with top stars P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth progressing to the semifinals of their respective events in the 21st Commonwealth Games' badminton competition, in Gold Coast, on Friday.
P V Sindhu said she still has lots to learn and needs to add a few more shots to her repertoire to dominate world badminton.
India's Parupalli Kashyap went down fighting to Pengyu Du of China 13-21, 17-21 in the men's singles quarter-final to crash out of the Denmark Open Super Series badminton championship at Odense on Saturday.
The FIR, filed on Thursday by M Goviappa Nagaraja, alleged that the 21-year-old reigning Commonwealth Games champion, along with his brother Chirag Sen, had fudged their age to get into playing age-group tournaments since 2010.
India's campaign at the Badminton Asia Championships ended after P V Sindhu lost her women's singles quarter-final against Eriko Hirose of Japan in a hard-fought contest in Taipei on Friday.
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.
Olympic medallist P V Sindhu is also missing in action as she recovers from an injury.
In the other semi-final, top seed Lin Dan of China will take on Singapore's Ronald Susilo.\n\n
India's leading shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the All-England badminton championships, losing to China's Li Xuerui in the quarter-finals in Birmingham on Friday.
The 23-year-old remains India's 'silver girl', having lost finals at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and two world championships before Tuesday's Asian Games title showdown defeat to world number one Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan.
It's going to be a hell of journey, says Sindhu welcoming new coach Hafiz Hashim
The Chinese was given a tough time by unseeded Malaysian Lee Tsuen Seng before making the semi-final in the All-England badminton.
Srikanth lost 21-23, 8-21 to Korea's Chia Hao Lee, continuing his dismal run in international circuit this season.
Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty claimed India's first ever medal in men's doubles after settling for a silver at the 21st Commonwealth Games' badminton competition, in Gold Coast, on Sunday.
Kidambi Srikanth, the top-ranking male Indian shuttler who put up an impressive performance in the Badminton Asia Team Championships here, says he aims to achieve a medal in the coming Rio Olympics. "As early as possible, but I am not in a hurry to do that (achieve number one rank in world rankings). It's just that I need to perform consistently. "Then, I will automatically get that. I don't want to become number one (immediately). I want to perform really very well. That's when I can be there (at the top)," the 23-year-old shuttler told PTI. Srikanth, who is currently ranked nine in the world, led the Indian team to semi finals of the Badminton Asia Team Championships. He was the only one to win a match in the five-match tie in the semi finals against Indonesia on Saturday. Srikanth remained unbeaten in the tournament. He said he doesn't think much about expectations.
India men's dream run in the ongoing Badminton Asia Team Championships came to an end after a 1-3 semi-final loss to Indonesia, in Hyderabad, on Saturday.
Badminton World No 1 Lee Chong Wei hinted that retirement was on the horizon after the emotional Malaysian sealed his 10th national championship in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
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.
Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy will represent India in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the young shuttlers said they would settle for nothing less than a gold in the inaugural edition of mega-event starting on August 13.
Top stars Saina Nehwal and Lee Chong Wei were the costliest buys, fetching the maximum prize of 100,000$, while Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were bought for a whopping 95,000$ and 80,000$ respectively at the rechristened Premier Badminton League (PBL) players' auction on Monday.