Olympics-bound Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu easily won their women's singles first round matches in the Badminton Asia Championships, in Wuhan, China, on Wednesday.
Three Indians, including P V Sindhu, advanced to the pre-quarter-finals in the US $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, but it was curtains for Ajay Jayaram in the men's singles, on Wednesday.
Saina Nehwal's dream of pocketing back-to-back titles were dashed by Chinese qualifier Xin Wang, who beat her in the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Johor Bahru on Friday. The Indian second seed cut a sorry figure as Wang took just 26 minutes to score a 21-14, 21-10 victory.
Parupalli Kashyap regained his place inside the top 10 in the latest BWF's world ranking, release on Thurday.
Check out India's report card on the sixth day of the 2016 Olympics.
A vociferous crowd failed to inspire India as the hosts went down fighting to Malaysia 1-3 in the finals of the mixed badminton event to settle for a silver in the Commonwealth Games at the Siri Fort sport complex in New Delhi on Friday.
The new women's doubles pairing of Shruti Kurian and Aparna Balan was the lone blip in an otherwise great start by India in the biennial Sudirman Cup badminton tournament in Guangzhou, on Monday. India rolled over Australia 4-1 in their Group 3 (sub-group 3B) opener in their quest for promotion to Group 2. India raced ahead to victory in the first four matches before Kurian and Balan went down.
A quarterfinal loss at the All England Championship saw Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slip three places down the rung to the sixth spot in the latest BWF world ranking on Thursday. Saina, who turned 26, went through injuries last year and missed out on a few tournaments this season, including the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and South Asian Games in January and February respectively. The Olympic bronze medallist, who had finished runners-up at the 2015 All England Championship, lost to Tai Tzu Ying in straight games in the quarterfinals. The Indian now has 73,222 points. Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu improved a place to reach the 11th spot.
Parupalli Kashyap beat seventh-seed Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh 21-19, 17-21, 21-11 in a battle lasting an hour to cruise into the quarter-finals of the Asian Badminton Championship. However, the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta bowed out in the second round of the tournament.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has jumped one place to the eighth spot, while a place in the finals of the Indian Open Super Series catapulted the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju to the elite top 10 bracket.
Saina Nehwal failed to produce her vintage form of recent years as the Indian ace suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Malaysian Julia Pei Xian Wong in the quarter-finals to crash out of the Yonex Sunrise Indian Open in Hyderabad on Friday.
Anup Sridhar, India's top singles player, attained a career best ranking of 25, according to the latest Badminton World Federation's (BWF) ranking list.
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.
India's Saina Nehwal bowed out of the Yonex Korea Super Series losing to Indonesia's Adrianti Firdasari in the second round, while mixed doubles duo of V Diju and Gwala Gutta upset the top seed to move into the quarter-finals in Seoul on Thursday.
Shuttler Arvind Bhat advanced to the second round of men's singles event while mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta won their opening match on a mixed day for Indians at the Yonex Korea Super Series in Seoul on Wednesday. Bhat got the better of compatriot Chetan Anand 21-12, 21-13 in 24 minutes in the first round when many of his compatriots bite the dust.
Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Ajay Jayaram continued their good run and reached the quarterfinals of the season-opening Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Sarawak on Thursday.
India's Siril Verma climbed a whopping 11 rungs to take the number one spot in the junior men's singles category of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Thursday.
National champion Chetan Anand and Aditi Mutatkar sailed into the semi-finals even as mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out in the Dutch Open badminton tournament in Amsterdam on Friday. In the women's singles, Aditi defeated Indonesia's Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari 12-21, 21-13, 21-18, while sixth seed Chetan got the better off 13th seed Ari Yuli W Hartanto of Indonesia 21-8, 21-16 in 29 minutes to stay on course for his third consecutive title.
Indian shuttlers had a field day in the KLRC Bulgarian Grand Prix in Sofia. Aditi Mutatkar, in the women's singles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, in the men's doubles, and the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta entered the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Top seed K Srikanth suffered a straight-games defeat, but three other Indians, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, advanced to the second round of the US $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Tuesday.
The Sports Ministry's nominee, Madhumita Bisht, will travel to Hyderabad and meet with the players to end the impasse.
India's highest ranked male shutter, Kidambi Srikanth, pulled off an upset victory over former world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, but his team Bengaluru Hot Guns went down 2-3 to Hyderabad Hunters in the Premier Badminton League clash in Mumbai on Sunday.
Kakinada is fast turning from a rice growing area to a buzzing town, thanks to Reliance's gas terminal.
Indian campaign in the Denmark Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament ended with Parupalli Kashyap suffering a straight-game defeat at the hands of second seed Chen Long of China in the men's singles semi-finals in Odense (Denmark).
Chetan Anand, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien paid dearly for their anti-federation stance and were dropped from the team for the Sudirman Cup.
The rebel trio of Chetan Anand, Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien agreed to join the ongoing camp on condition that the BAI will not hold back their entries for tournaments abroad.
The London Olympics bronze medallist beat world No. 73 Brazilian Vicente Lohaynny 21-17, 21-17 in 39 minutes, while Sindhu, a two-time World Championships bronze winner, had things her way against Laura Sarosi of Hungary, winning 21-8, 21-9 in 27 minutes.
The shuttlers led by Saina Nehwal will make their first appearance in the Olympic Games on Thursday along with men golfers as India still waits for its first medal after five days of fruitless labour in this Brazilian city.
It turned out to be a disastrous day for Indian shuttlers at the Hong Kong Open as P V Sindhu, K Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram crashed out of the $ 350,000 Super Series event in the opening round, in Hong Kong, on Wednesday.
But Chatan Anand crashed out in the first round at the All England badminton championships.
Indian challenge ended at the $275,000 French Open Super Series badminton tournament after top seed Saina Nehwal suffered a straight game defeat to Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-finals in Paris.
Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde won the men's and women's singles crowns at the South Asian Games as India won all the five gold medals at stake.
Hailing the decision of the Supreme Court to appoint a two-member committee to oversee reforms in the Cricket Board after the removal of two top BCCI officials, some Olympians and Arjuna Awardees from other disciplines backed ex-cricketers Bishen Bedi and Kirti Azad to undertake the task. "The Hon. Supreme Court has given the onerous responsibility of suggesting names of eminent people who shall comprise a committee to oversee reforms in BCCI and state bodies which have been bedevilled by controversies and malfeasance," they said in a media statement following the apex court's ejection of Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke as President and Secretary of the BCCI.
Indian badminton star and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was Thursday ruled out along withParupalli Kashyap from the 12th South Asian Games due to injury concerns, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) informed the local organisers in Shillong. "We've received a communication from BAI stating that the entire badminton squad except for Saina and Kashyap is arriving on Friday afternoon," SAG (Shillong) joint CEO FR Kharkongor told PTI. Saina and Kashyap are two of the top badminton athletes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio. Jwala Gutta has been confirmed as the captain of the Indian team by BAI President Akhilesh Das Gupta.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Super Series Premier tournament with a comfortable straight-game win over local favourite Fitriani Fitriani in the women's singles event in Jakarta on Thursday.
The Indian challenge at the Denmark Open badminton tournament ended after Chetan Anand and Nikhil Kanetkar lost in the men's singles at the pre-quarter-final stage.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open, but it was H S Prannoy, who hogged the limelight on Thursday with a straight games demolition of world No. 2 Jan O Jorgensen in the men's singles.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and young H S Prannoy registered contrasting wins in the men's singles to enter the second round of the Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament.
With the straight-game victory, Sindhu became the first Indian to achieve the feat.
It was another easy day for the Indian badminton team as they made it to the quarter-finals.
