China's badminton superstar Lin Dan said he hopes world number one Lee Chong Wei, who is embroiled in a doping scandal, is able to return to the sport soon, state media reported.
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.
'Her defence was the one only problem. (Carolina) Marin and Pornpawee (Chochuwong) are good attacking players, they were using a lot of half smash and straight smash, and when Sindhu's defence goes down on a day, it affects her other skills as well, she gets nervous. But now she has improved a lot in her defence as well. Her endurance on the court is also good.'
After missing out on Rio Olympics last year due to a knee surgery, a fit-again Parupalli Kashyap is racing against time to regain his place in the Indian team and defend his title at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Srikanth credits Gopichand for all recent success - the two back-to-back Super Series titles and says, 'My focus is on World Championships, not thinking of rankings'
The London Olympic bronze medallist will face either Denmark's Line Christophersen or compatriot Ira Sharma for a place in the finals at the Super 100 event, which is a part of BWF's revised Olympic qualification events.
Saina Nehwal's comeback may have ended with a gruelling opening round loss at the China Super Series Premier in Fuzhou but the London Olympics bronze medallist said she was satisfied with the way she played.
Recovering from an ankle injury, star India shuttler Saina Nehwal said she will look to get back to her full fitness during the three weeks break after the India Open next month.
Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is among the 20 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna Awards, who will be honoured by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Was it badminton sensation PV Sindhu, who became the first Indian to win the World Championships gold medal? Or is it the young shooting progidy Saurabh Chaudhary? Or his India colleague Elavenil Valarivan, who recently took over as World No 1? What about India's heroes on the cricketing field -- Virat Kohli? Rohit Sharma?
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma and the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa notched thrilling victories to enter the quarter-finals of the India Open Super 500 World Tour badminton tournament in Delhi on Thursday.
The Attri and Reddy duo made light-weight of their opponent
India's hopes of fetching five badminton medals at the Commonwealth Games suffered a massive jolt on Friday as ace shuttler and defending champion Saina Nehwal pulled out of the Glasgow event.
The London Olympics bronze medallist was trailing 4-10 in the opening game when Marin decided to withdraw from the contest.
Vijender Singh has pulled out of the 35th National Games starting on Saturday
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.
Saina Nehwal has once again resumed her partnership with long-time mentor and former coach Pullela Gopichand and would be starting her training at his academy in Hyderabad after recovering from a thigh strain.
Meet the heroes from the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Sindhu lost 7-21, 24-22, 15-21 to Beiwen Zhang of United States in a match that lasted 56 minutes while World Championships bronze-medallst Sai Praneeth was trailing 9-21, 7-11 when he conceded the match to fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark due to an unspecified injury.
India's badminton queen PV Sindhu revealed that working with new coach Kim Ji Hyun along with the guidance from Pullela Gopichand has been instrumental in taking her game to the next level.
Sindhu has fallen in the early stages at all tournaments except the French Open since winning her maiden World Championship title in August.
PV Sindhu while addressing the newly-appointed Assistant Directors of the Sports Authority of India through an online session, stressed on the importance of parents, coaches, administrators working as a team to build up a champion.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Saina Nehwal, who was forced to skip the National Badminton Championships because of a shoulder injury, is hoping to be back on court at the All England Super Series, from March 3 to 8.
The ace Indian shuttler beat former England No 1 Amir Ghaffar 21-18, 21-14 in the final.
Arvind Bhat, on a comeback trail after a long injury-induced lay-off, won another satellite badminton series, this time in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Krissh Delhi Smashers' icon player Jwala Gutta, who missed her team's Indian Badminton League tie against Mumbai Masters, is yet to recover from a shoulder injury but the ace doubles shuttler is hopeful of playing against Awadhe Warriors on Thursday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, who regained the number one spot in international rankings, said it was a big achievement for her.
Sindhu said she has to watch out for the Chinese players as well since they have been missing from the circuit for some time.
Former badminton world number one Lee Chong Wei is hoping to be back on court for the start of the 2016 Olympic qualifiers in May after finally being given an April date for a hearing into his failed dope test.
Sourabh recovered from a mid-game slump to beat Sun 21-12, 17-21, 21-14 in the summit clash
COVID-19 is a stark reminder that man should now learn to respect nature and not tinker with it, says Indian shuttler Sameer Verma. The shuttler also felt that the coronavirus-forced break is an opportunity to fix mental weakness and that a six-week training regime should be good enough to regain match-fitness after normalcy returns.
World No 1 Saina Nehwal is all set to defend her women's singles title at the Australian Open super series .
Making a comeback after undergoing a knee surgery, top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal says that she sometimes feels her badminton career could come to an end due to the injuries she has suffered. Saina, recently made a member of the International Olympic Committee's Athletics Commission, is returning to action at the China Super Series Premier starting November 15. The 26-year-old Saina had developed a knee problem a week before she was to leave for Rio Olympics and she carried the injury through the Games before she made an early exit by losing her second match.
India's PV Sindhu went down fighting to Spain's World No 1 Carolina Marin in the women's singles badminton gold medal match at the Rio Olympics on Friday.
After losing seven successive finals, PV Sindhu finally redeemed herself with the gold medal at the World Tour Finals.
Saina Nehwal eschews the 'natural talent' tag thrust upon her by Indian media and says only hard graft and good coaching have given her the chance to turn the Olympic badminton bronze she won four years ago in London into gold at the Rio Games.
India's Saina Nehwal thrashed Olympic silver medallist Yihan Wang of China to storm into the semi-finals of the All England badminton championships in Birmingham.
Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal may have hit global headlines with their big wins against China's superstars of badminton but sadly they have not made it into the state-run Chinese media, which played down their herculean achievement.
A foot injury early in the year derailed her plans but ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu is happy to make a successful comeback with a good performance at the Denmark Super Series Premier and a third successive Macau Grand Prix Gold title.
