Saina Nehwal moved a step closer to defending her Indonesian Open Super Series title, reaching the semi-finals with a straight games' victory over Denmark's eighth seed Tine Baun, in Jakarta, on Friday. The fourth seed won 21-19, 21-19 in 37 minutes.
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.
Saina Nehwal's hopes of defending her Singapore Open crown were dashed by Chinese Taipei's Shao Chieh Cheng in a thrilling three-game pre-quarter-final in Singapore City on Thursday. The fourth seeded Indian blew the advantage of winning the first game and suffered a 21-8, 10-21, 19-21 defeat against the world No 10 in a match that lasted 52 minutes.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal overcame a second game slump to beat China's Lu Lan and enter the second round of the Singapore Open Super Series on Wednesday. The world No 4 Indian needed 56 minutes to emerge a 21-18, 13-21, 21-16 winner in the first round of the women's singles. Saina meets Chinese Taipei's Shao Chieh Cheng next.
Indian contingent has an opportunity to go deep in the draw and recapture the trophy which has been won by just two Indians so far -- the legendary Prakash Padukone (1980) and P Gopichand (2001).
Defending champion Saina Nehwal and two-time World Championships bronze medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the quarter-finals, but it turned out to be a dismal day for star shuttlers Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei at the India Open Super Series in Delhi on Thursday.
Divya Kakran shrugged off a crushing quarter-final defeat to bag the bronze, ensuring that medals continued to come from the wrestling arena even as three other Indians crashed out early at the Asian Games.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei in the first round and bowed out of the World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The world No 54 lost 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 7-11, 9-11.
India suffered a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of sixth seeds China to slump to their second consecutive defeat in the Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania qualifying round on Tuesday.
India's best bet for a badminton medal at the Asian Games, Saina Nehwal, starts her campaign in the individual competitions at the Tianhe Gymnasium in Guangzhou on Wednesday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal overcame a jittery start to defeat spirited Korean Seung Hee Bae and enter the second round of the All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
India's campaign at the Fed Cup turned worst as it was relegated to Group II of the Asia/Oceania Zone after losing the play-off tie 1-2 to Chinese Taipei in Nonthaburi on Saturday.
The prestigious awards recognise the achievements of the elite badminton players
Asian Games gold medallist, Somdev Devvarman combined with South African Rik De Voest to script a come-from-behind win over Dmitry Tursonov of Russia and Chinese Taipei's Jimmy Wang and advance to the semi-final of the men's doubles event at the Singapore ATP Challenger.
Saina Nehwal made a disappointing return from injury, suffering a shock defeat to Japan's Sayaka Sato in the second round of the women's singles at the Korean Super Series in Seoul on Thursday. The world No 4 Indian was beaten by Sayaka 21-17, 19-21, 11-21 in 53 minutes. P Kashyap was also a second round casualty after losing 16-21, 13-21 to third seed Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark in 38 minutes, in the men's singles.
India's Divya Kakran and Manju Kumari won bronze medals for the country in the women's competition of the Asian Wrestling Championships, in Xi'an, Thursday.
India's Deepika Kumari missed out on a medal as she lost to Kwon Un Sil of North Korea in the bronze-medal play-off of the women's individual archery event in the Asian Games.
Five-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) and Kavita Goyat (75kg) assured India of at least two bronze medals in women's boxing by advancing to the semifinals with contrasting wins at the Asian Games, in Guangzhou on Monday.
Reigning World champion P V Sindhu on Monday said she was completely blank after winning a second successive Olympic medal and it took her a while to realise the enormity of her historic achievement in the ongoing Games.
India's campaign in table tennis competitions in the Asian Games came to a disappointing end on Thursday with star paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bowing out in the pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles event at the Guangzhou Gymnasium.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the second round of the women's singles at the Asian Games after steamrolling Lydia Cheah of Malaysia in the second round in Guangzhou on Wednesday.
National billiards champion Alok Kumar on Sunday became the first Indian to win an Asian Games medal in pool events by clinching bronze in the men's 8-ball category despite losing in the semi-finals in Guangzhou.
The 20-year-old's top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year's World Championships.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said the government will not have any say on whether India should participate in next month's Davis Cup tie in Pakistan as the event is not a bilateral engagement.
Sania Mirza bowed out of the Aegon Classic when she and her Chinese Taipei partner Chuang Chia-Jung lost in straight sets in the semi-finals in Birmingham on Saturday night. The third-seeded Indo-Taipei pair lost 5-7, 3-6 to the top seeded Zimbabwean-American pair of Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
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.
The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair stormed into the final of the China Open, beating the wild card Chinese duo of Chen Liang and Yafan Wang 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-finals, in Beijing, on Friday.
Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Commonwealth bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Dutch Open Grand Prix after notching up srRound.
India's Trisha Deb sprung a surprise to win bronze in the compound women's individual event at the Asian Games on Saturday, taking India's tally in archery to three medals on the day so far.
Defending champions Japan thrashed Chinese Taipei 7-0 while twice title winners South Korea mauled Kazakhstan 15-0 at Queen Sikirt Sports Centre in Bangkok.
Saina squandered a game advantage to lose 21-16, 11-21, 14-21 against Takahashi
Saina Nehwal staged a splendid recovery to enter the third round of the World Badminton Championships at the Pierre de Coubertin stadium in Paris on Wednesday. The world No 2 Indian ace, seeded second, got the better of Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei 20-22, 21-15, 21-8.
Saina Nehwal will carry a billion hopes when she takes the court in the World badminton Championship but the ace India shuttler remains quietly confident about her chances in the event which gets underway in Paris on Monday.
Roger Federer strolled into the second round of the Australian Open with a clinical 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 rout of Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun under the lights of Rod Laver Arena on Monday.
His recent success on the ITF circuit on Tuesday fetched teenage sensation Yuki Bhambri a place in the Indian Davis Cup squad for the crucial World Group play-off tie against South Africa scheduled September 18 to 20.
Rohan Bopanna, along with his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, crashed out of the quarter-finals of the men's doubles at the US Open. The Indo-Romanian combine, semi-finalists at Wimbledon this year, lost 6-7 (2), 3-6 to Dominic Inglot of Great Britain and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.
Manu won the women's 10m Air Pistol on day three of competition while Saurabh bagged a team gold in the men's event.
Sania Mirza and veteran Rushmi Charavarthy registered contrasting singles victories as India blanked Kyrgyzstan 3-0 in the play-off tie to win back their place in the Asia/Oceania Group I of the Fed Cup tennis tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
Pistol aces Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu bagged a bronze each to continue India's medal charge at the 10th Asian Championship 10m Rifle/Pistol in Wako City.
India's Sania Mirza overcame a fighting Meng Yuan in a three-setter to earn a shot at singles title of the US$ 50,000 ITF Challenger event in Lexington, United States. The second seed Indian beat sixth seed Chinese 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the semi-final of the hard court event.
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