India's P V Sindhu finished second best at the World Tour Badminton Finals after going down tamely to Korean teen sensation An Seyoung in the women's singles final, in Bali, on Sunday. The reigning World champion and two-time Olympic medallist was unable to match the pace nor breach the defence of the world No. 6 and was beaten 16-21, 12-21 in the 40 minutes.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
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Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Thursday felicitated the Indian women's cricket team for its spectacular performance in the ICC World Cup, saying this will inspire the country's youth to take up sports as a career option.
India began their campaign Badminton Asia Team Championships in style with both men's and women's teams posting victories against their Singapore rivals to make it to the quarterfinals. Indian men made a clean sweep of their five-match tie against Singapore, who had lost to China two days ago. India, China and Singapore are part of Group A. Despite the absence of star player Saina Nehwal, the Indian women registered a comprehensive 5-0 win against Singapore and also entered the quarter finals as the Singapore team lost to Japan earlier. Each tie comprises three singles and two doubles matches. India's rising shuttler Srikanth scored a comfortable 21-16, 12-21, 21-13 win over his Singapore rival Zi Liang Derek Wong in the first Singles match. The Singaporean tried to make matters difficult for Srikanth, but the world number nine bounced back to have the last laugh.
Indian women's team had won a bronze medal at Incheon four years ago and Sindhu hoped they can change the colour of the medal this time when the multi-sport event gets underway on August 18.
Seventh seed Sindhu lost 14-21 18-21 to Bing Jiao in the women's singles.
World no 10 men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, however, are expected to face a stiff challenge in the league stage.
Crowned the world number one, Saina Nehwal celebrated her numero uno status with a straight-game demolition of Japanese Yui Hashimoto, while Kidambi Srikanth too saw off Xue Song of China to reach their maiden finals at the Yonex Sunrise India Super Series.
The Indian men's team secured a place in the semi-finals of the ongoing Badminton Asia Team Championships after a hard-fought 3-2 win against Malaysia in the quarter-finals at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Star shuttlers, including P V Sindhu, will chase individual gold medals but doubles would also under the spotlight as India would aim to retain the mixed team title and continue their consistent run at the Commonwealth Games.
Prannoy and Sen played five times in 2022 with Sen coming into the match with a slender 3-2 advantage.
Having slumped in the rankings, champion shuttler Parupalli Kashyap tells Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com how he plans to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
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.
In the men's doubles however, the Indian pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to 11th seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 11-21, 16-21 in a second round match that lasted 41 minutes.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal is placed fourth in the list headed by American tennis legend Serena Williams followed by Maria Sharapova and elder sister Venus.
After Indonesia and South Korea on Friday joined Thailand, Australia, Chinese Taipei and Algeria in pulling out due to the dreaded disease
'To the youth, I will say work hard. One minute of work will not get you anything. I have worked hard for the past 20 years, 2002 was the first time I won a gold medal.'
Young Indian shuttler Ashmita Chaliha recorded the first upset of the India Open when she stunned fifth seed Evgeniya Kosetskaya while top seed P V Sindhu sailed into the women's singles second round of the tournament, in Delhi, on Tuesday.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Friday recommended Kidambi Srikanth for the Khel Ratna award after the top Indian shuttler apologised for pulling out of a tournament midway and show-caused his teammate H S Prannoy for slamming the federation after not being nominated for the Arjuna honour.
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.
The 125-ranked Indian badminton ace, whose career has been dogged by injury, wants to reach the top 30-35 this year.
Sindhu has agreed to compete in next month's Thomas and Uber Cup after deciding to pull out of the event earlier due to personal reasons
India's badminton doubles specialist N Sikki Reddy on Saturday heaved a sigh of relief after returning negative for COVID-19 barely two days after testing positive for the contagious disease, saying she was "shocked" by the not-so-kind reactions her initial result attracted.
P V Sindhu breezed into the summit clash of the World Tour Finals for the second successive time after prevailing over 2013 World champion Ratchanok Intanon in a tense semi-final.
Indian badminton star Pusarla V Sindhu won badminton's women's bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, beating China's He Bing Jao 21-13, 21-15 in third-place play-off on Sunday.
With the hope that 2018 will be a prosperous and peaceful year, our favourite sports personalities took to their social media handles to wish their fans a very `Happy New Year`.
The top Indian players, including Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth have failed to lift the prestigious trophy
The Manikarnika actor, known for provocative and often inflammatory statements, was once again the centre of debate -- and ire -- with politicians across the spectrum, including Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi, among the host of social media users and others who reacted with outrage for her comments at an event on Wednesday evening.
In other India-related news, Manish Kaurav (KL3 men 200m) and Manjeet Singh (VL2 men 200m) made it to the finals of their respective events for the first time in the history of the tournament.
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap have urged badminton's governing body to reconsider its decision not to extend the qualification period for the Tokyo Games despite several events being cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus.
Memories of a path-breaking gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games are still fresh in her mind as Saina Nehwal embarks on a quest to regain the title at the Gold Coast Games starting next week.
Seasoned Indian ace Saina Nehwal and the fast-rising H S Prannoy notched up contrasting wins in the women's and men's singles competition respectively to reach the All England badminton championships' second round at Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal, while Laskhya Sen entered his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
Indian badminton national coach Pullela Gopichand feels PV Sindhu can do much better in terms of her defensive ability as she faces world number three Nozomi Okuhara in the Olympic semi-finals on Thursday.
One of the most awaited matches of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL) turned out to be a damp squib as Saina Nehwal trampled PV Sindhu 21-19, 21-8 at the Siri Fort Complex.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
BAI General Secretary Ajay Singhania said that BAI is in receipt of the letter from the shuttler.
Shafali Verma is by far the most decorated of the lot having already played in three World Cup finals at senior level.
