Badminton teen sensation P V Sindhu improved one more place to close the gap with ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal in the latest world ranking released in Kuala Lumpur.
Their only loss came against group toppers China, the most successful team in the tournament with 13 titles, in their second group tie on the opening day of the tournament.
In hockey, the women's team continued its inspiring run with a silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
World champion shuttler P V Sindhu on Thursday donated Rs 5 lakh each to the Chief Minister's Relief Funds of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to fight the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 21,000 lives globally. The number of positive cases in India has surpassed the 600-mark, while 13 deaths have been reported so far, prompting the government to put the country under lockdown till April 14 to halt the spread of the virus.
The Olympic silver-medallist, who out-played Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a lop-sided final in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday, was mobbed at the airport after she touched down, with national coach Pullela Gopichand by her side, late on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
In the women's doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won 21-18, 21-19 against the Dutch duo of Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen. Treesa and Gayatri face Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching in the quarter-finals.
Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei welcomed the decision to use video reviews of disputed line calls after the world number one became the first in badminton to use the technology on Wednesday.
Top Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss to seventh seeded English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 17-21, 14-21 in a last-8 match.
The 26-year-old is now the lone Indian survivor in the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament.
Parupalli Kashyap entered the quarterfinals after top seed and Olympic champion Axelsen gave a walkover.
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.
Kidambi Srikanth made a winning start but PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy were ousted
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal faces the prospect of an early exit from the BWF World Superseries Finals after going down to Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China in a Group B match in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
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.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty earned India's first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games
With the two teams locked 2-2 in the overall tie after the first the three matches, it was left to their respective mixed doubles pairs to push them ahead.
Newly-crowned world No. 1 Saina Nehwal edged out China's Sun Yu to reach the women's singles semi-finals of the $8500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
Paralympics gold medallist Pramod Bhagat attributed his calm on-court demeanour under pressure to the inspiration he took from the sportsmanship and graceful behaviour exhibited by the iconic cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in his career.
Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals with an easy straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori
It's going to be a hell of journey, says Sindhu welcoming new coach Hafiz Hashim
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The Badminton Association of India is optimistic about China's participation in next month's India Open despite fears surrounding the deadly coronavirus as Chinese shuttlers are in quarantine for almost a fortnight in Europe.
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.
Former badminton No 1 Lee Chong Wei returned home to Malaysia and said he faced a three-week wait for the verdict from his doping hearing.
Two-time silver medallist P V Sindhu produced yet another commanding performance as she demolished Beiwen Zhang of United States in straight games to advance to the quarter-finals of the BWF Badminton World Championships.
The Indian team, comprising Olympic hopefuls PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth, have been allotted training timings. The players also had their first gym session in the afternoon.
P V Sindhu won the ESPN's 'Female Sportsperson of the Year' award while young shooter Saurabh Chaudhary bagged the honour in the male category.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
A sensational run over the last two weeks has given wings to Ashwini Ponnappa's Olympics dreams, and the ace Indian shuttler now wants to continue her fine run in the upcoming bigger tournaments to stay on course for a trip to Paris.
Chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Monday singled out world number one doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as favourites for an Olympic medal and said two-time medallist PV Sindhu too is on the right path and can deliver once again at the Paris Games.
Besides, the BAI also recommended renowned National Institute of Sports (NIS)-certified coaches -- S Murlidharan and Bhaskar Babu -- for the Dronacharya Award.
Parupalli Kashyap continued his impressive run to advance to the semi-finals of the Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament, even as young H S Prannoy was left ruing his luck as a foot injury forced him to concede his quarter-final, on Friday.
Star Indian shuttler P V Sindhu cruised into the quarter-finals of the All England Championships women's singles with a straight-game win over Sung Ji Hyun of Korea, in Birmingham, on Thursday.Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen was knocked out after losing in straight games to Victor Axelsen.
The London Olympics bronze medallist displaced Spain's Carolina Marin, who defeated her in the women's final of the World Championships in Jakarta last Sunday.
The 2021 All England Open will be the second tournament this year to offer ranking points to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, after the Swiss Open.
Former badminton World No 1 Lee Chong Wei has been nominated for Malaysia's 2014 sportsman of the year award.
In sizzling form after clinching the China Open and finishing runners-up at Hong Kong, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will look to sign off the year with another crown when she competes in the season-ending World Superseries Finals starting in Dubai from Wednesday. In Rio de Janeiro, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win an Olympics silver medal in August, but qualifying for the Dubai World Super Series final still was a far cry as she was placed at 16th in the Destination Dubai Rankings with just two events -- China Open and Hong Kong Open -- remaining.
It was a smooth performance from Sindhu as she was hardly tested by the Taiwanese qualifier
A look at the historic achievements by India's athletes in 2022.
