The eighth seeded Indian, who won the Indonesia Super Series Premier and Australian Super series Open in June, defeated Russia's Sergey Sirant 21-13 21-12 in less than 30 minutes. The World No. 8 will take on France's Lucas Corvee tomorrow.
Memories of a path-breaking gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games are still fresh in her mind as Saina Nehwal embarks on a quest to regain the title at the Gold Coast Games starting next week.
Former World No 1 Saina Nehwal stayed on course for the women's singles title at the season-opening Malaysia Masters after she advanced to the semi-finals of the $US 120,000 Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Sarawak, Malaysia.
'Since I arrived in Sydney I have gastroenteritis and have had diarrhoea, so I have not been at my best physical condition'
In other India-related news, Manish Kaurav (KL3 men 200m) and Manjeet Singh (VL2 men 200m) made it to the finals of their respective events for the first time in the history of the tournament.
Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal notched up her first title after a career-threatening injury by claiming the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold with a hard-fought victory in the summit clash in Sarawak, Malaysia, on Sunday.
China's Li Na, Asia's only grand slam singles champion, announced her retirement from tennis on Friday, citing the effect of long-term injuries, especially her knees.
Besides the duo, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri award.
American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, was suspended for six months by USA Swimming on Monday following his recent arrest on a drunken driving charge.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal stood just one win away from clinching her maiden China Open title after she stormed into the finals of the USD 700,000 Super Series Premier tournament in Fuzhou.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
'I have been lucky to be able to show my talent more as a sports anchor, and I could do this for life!'
The first Indian woman to clinch a silver medal at the World Championship in the 2015 edition at Jakarta, Saina has been struggling ever since, limping out of the Olympics last year with a knee injury.
Here's a look at Indian athletes' performance on Monday, Day 4 of the Games.
'I never imagined that a doll would be made on me. It feels great to be recognised by Barbie,' says the World Para-badminton champion who was also honoured by Time magazine.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Former World No 1 Ana Ivanovic brushed aside Caroline Wozniacki to win the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Sunday and move closer to sealing a berth for the season-ending WTA finals in Singapore.
Mahesh Bhupathi says for India to host big-ticket WTA events, the country needs to produce a top-50 women's singles player, who can bring the fans to the stadium.
Some of the big moments of the sporting world from 2010-2019!
'I think it was a fantastic game for me. I started off really well in the first game but he was playing well in the second game, leading 11-6 at the break and fighting it out. But overall, I think my game was going great, my attack was going well for me'
Of the top 15 on Forbes' list of best-paid female athletes, 12 were tennis players. Indian badminton player PV Sindhu came in tied for 13th ($5.5 million), with Thai golfer Ariya Jutanugarn ($5.3 million) rounding out the top 15.
Enduring the worst injury phase of his career, Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap says he had doubts if he would be able to play again after dislocating his right shoulder at the Premier Badminton League in January.
Saina Nehwal has gained a place to be fifth in the latest Badminton World Federation women's singles rankings released on Thursday.
Indian tennis ace Leander Paes is not at all surprised with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer dominating once again, saying the ageing duo continue to 'reinvent' themselves.
P V Sindhu cemented her position as a dominant force on the world stage with an Olympic silver medal while Saina Nehwal continued to battle with injuries in a year, which saw Indian badminton take giant strides at the global platform. It turned out to be a watershed year for Sindhu, who reached the upper echelons of world badminton with a silver medal at Rio Games -- an achievement also for her mentor and chief coach Pullela Gopichand, who became the only Indian coach to produce two Olympic medallists. On the other hand, for the first part of the year, it was Saina's battle with injuries which dominated the headlines even though she was considered to be the best bet for India at Rio. The Indian ace fought against time to recover from an Achilles tendons and went on to win the Australian Super Series.
Path-breaking tennis ace Sania Mirza takes pride in the fact that many of India's sporting stars, outside cricket, are women even though she believes that it will take a few more generations before being a sportswoman is seen as a natural career choice in the country. The winner of six Grand Slam titles, spoke on a range of issues including the role of parents and attitude of coaches towards women players during a webinar organised by the All India Tennis Association and the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
Rediff.com introduces you to the athletes who have brought India glory in Birmingham.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
These athletes made India proud four years ago.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
Sania Mirza's was officially named for the coveted Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Friday. The Hyderabadi lady is only the second tennis player to be nominated for the country's highest sport honour.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
World Badminton Championships silver medallist Saina Nehwal feels her decision to shift base to Bangalore and train under Vimal Kumar turned out to be a masterstroke.
Srikanth or Sindhu? Advani or Kohli? Or will a 21 year old pip the stars? Vote and tell us who your favourite Indian sportsperson of the year is.
This includes the Indian Open Grand Prix badminton in September and a one-day international match against Australia in October.
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand remained tightlipped about his split with Saina Nehwal, saying he doesn't want to talk about the issue as the Asian Games is just round the corner.
Sunil Gavaskar feels that once the Australia government has now formally announced that 25 per cent crowd can turn up for sporting events, a World T20 in October looks more imminent than IPL.
