Verma who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke
Saina squandered a game advantage to lose 21-16, 11-21, 14-21 against Takahashi
His backhand blocks and forehand low returns reaped dividends but an alert Gemke managed to grab a four-point cushion at the interval.
Experienced drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh returned to India's men's hockey team, which also features debutant Jaskaran Singh, for the tour of Australia, starting May 10.
PV Sindhu outclassed Germany's Yvonne Li to cruise into the women's singles quarter-finals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event in Bali on Thursday.
Top shuttler B Sai Praneeth and doubles player Dhruv Rawat have already pulled out after testing positive in the pre-departure testing.
Former World No 1 Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, lost 14-21, 21-17, 17-21 to World No 2 Yamaguchi in a 50-minute women's singles clash.
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).
Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a bad patch, having lost six times in the first round this season.
Young men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too entered the quarter-finals after getting past Chinese Taipei's Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng 21-17, 21-16 in the second round.
National camp to resume on Monday.
Lakshya Sen's stunning win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie went in vain as the Indian men's badminton team went down fighting 2-3 to two-time defending champions Indonesia in the semi-finals to settle for a bronze at the Asia Team Championships in Manila on Saturday.
Srikanth held a 4-1 record over Prannoy coming into this match, but the shuttler was unable to deliver. Srikanth won the first game 21-13, but Prannoy won the second set comprehensively.
Sindhu, seeded fifth, slugged it out for one hour and two minutes to get the better of Blichfeldt
Sen won his second round contest 21-17, 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality.
Expectations from the Indian male shuttlers will also be high, given their exploits in recent months.
Indian mixed doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa shocked Commonwealth Games silver medallists England's Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the $ 1 million China Open
Jwala says Sindhu should scan through all the videos of her past matches and work on her strategy.
The Badminton World Federastion (BWF) unveiled a revised international calendar to salvage the remainder of the season, disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sourabh Verma and Ajay Jayram also entered the second round
Saina and Busanan engaged in some long rallies but it was the Thai shuttler who had the last laugh
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.
PM Modi had also taken a review meeting to take stock of how the preparations of India's athletes are going
World Championships bronze medallist Sen had earlier advanced to the men's singles semi-finals after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China gave a walkover.
Sameer Verma stayed on course for his title defence while three-time former champion Saina Nehwal too reached the semifinals with an easy win
After losing seven successive finals, PV Sindhu finally redeemed herself with the gold medal at the World Tour Finals.
A summary of Indian athletes' performances on Sunday, August 7, Day 10 of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Following is the schedule of Indian contingent on the fifth day of the Asian Games.
In hockey, the women's team continued its inspiring run with a silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth was disappointed after being called for a series of what he termed "ridiculous" service faults during his pre-quarterfinal match against China's Huang Yuxiang at the All England Championship.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Gopichand, who shaped Sindhu and Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal among others, believes it will take some time for the next big star to emerge.
If only the shooters had found their targets, the story would have been so different! sighs Raj Kishore Mishra.
Indian athletes, including the boxers and shooters, hit the ground running as they started their pre-Olympic training, hoping to live up to massive expectations in the pandemic-hit Games in Tokyo.
Here's a look at Indian athletes' performance on Monday, Day 4 of the Games.
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.
Top shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, are likely to leave for Malaysia and Singapore via Doha to participate in the last two Olympic qualifiers next month due to travel bans imposed by the two countries in the wake of unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases in India.
Kashyap, a Commonwealth Games champion, was trailing 8-14 in the third game when he chose to retire after pulling his calf muscle.
Indian athletes' performance on Day 9 of the Commonwealth Games.
A summary of Indian athletes showing on Friday, Day 8 of the Commonwealth Games.
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