India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand says the draw hardly matters if the shuttlers are focused on gunning for a medal at the Olympics. He believes that it will boil down to two good back-to-back matches under pressure to earn a medal at the Rio Games, starting August 5.
A much-anticipated second round meeting of India's top two women shuttlers, world No 1 Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu, failed to materiliaze as the latter came a cropper in her opening match at the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament, in Tokyo, on Wednesday.
Competing in his 24th Australian Open, veteran Leander Paes and his partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela saved a few match points but eventually fell 5-7, 6-7(4) to American-Kiwi combo of Austin Krajicek and Artem Sitak.
Sania Mirza set herself up for her first-ever women's doubles Grand Slam title, while seasoned pro Leander Paes is now one win away from his 16th Major trophy as the two Indians reached the Wimbledon finals with their respective partners.
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Harinderpal Singh Sandhu won the gold medal at the Asian Squash Mixed Doubles Championships
Sania Mirza's hopes of a grand double at the Australian Open were dashed after she and Croatian partner Ivan Dodig were beaten in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles on Friday night.
A stellar season thus far has propelled the 43-year-old into the top 15.
Srikanth lost 21-23, 8-21 to Korea's Chia Hao Lee, continuing his dismal run in international circuit this season.
India's women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa crashed out of the Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold on Thursday after suffering a straight-game defeat against the Malaysian pair of Hui Ern Ng and Hui Lin Ng in the second round in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Rohan Bopanna, the seasoned Indian tennis maestro, etched his name in history by securing a spot in his inaugural Australian Open men's doubles final.
On an extremely bad for India at the Denmark Open, top seed Saina Nehwal suffered a shock second round defeat while Kidambi Srikanth also failed to clear the second round in men's singles of the $650,000 Super Series Premier event, in Odense on Thursday.
V K Vismaya stunned her fancied opponents, M R Poovamma and Hima Das, to win the gold medal in the women's 400m race at the Indian Grand Prix-3, in Sangrur, on Saturday.
India's Rohan Bopanna, partnering Australia's Matthew Ebden advanced to the semi-finals of the men's doubles at the US Open tennis tournament, at Flushing Meadows, New York, on Tuesday. The sixth seeds scored a 7-6(10), 6-1 victory over the 15th seeded American combination of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow in the quarter-finals.
Wrapping up the first set in less than 25 minutes, the pair led 4-1 in the second when they were made to work a bit as Galfi and Pera won four games on the trot to make it five-all.
Prannoy signs off with maiden World Championships bronze medal after losing semifinal to Vitidsarn
India had won the mixed team gold at 2018 CWG for the first time and Chirag feels they can repeat the performance this year too.
Veteran Mahesh Bhupathi went out of the mixed doubles competition following a first-round loss.
Indian mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra clinched their maiden Grand Prix title, bagging the Brazil Open with a straight games victory over Canadian combo of Toby Ng and Rachel Honderich at Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, on Sunday.
India's leading players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sumit Nagal lost in the pre-quarter-finals, ending India's challenge in the men's singles, of the Bengaluru Open, in Bengaluru, on Thursday.
The World No 11 Srikanth will take on China's Lu Guang Zu in the next round.
Jwala Gutta and Diju Valiyaveetil's dreams of winning their first Grand Prix gold went up in smoke as the Indian mixed doubles pair suffered a straight games defeat against Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa of Indonesia in the Yonex Sunrise Indian Open final in Hyderabad on Sunday. The error-prone second seeded Indian pair lost 14-21, 17-21 to the third seeded Indonesians.
Sameer Verma stayed on course for his title defence while three-time former champion Saina Nehwal too reached the semifinals with an easy win
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna outclassed Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski to enter the mixed doubles final at the 2023 Australian Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down fighting to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei at the Japan Open.
The unseeded Indian duo stunned local favourites Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen 21-19, 21-15 in a 43-minute quarter-final clash.
Earlier, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) had said in an update that Satwik had suffered a groin injury.
Rohan Bopanna stayed solid with his service games and net play but Sania Mirza struggled with her serve as the Indian team bowed out in the third round of the Wimbledon mixed doubles.
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.
'You can't just have one single player who is individually doing well and be able to win the World Championship or the Olympics.' 'In the Thomas Cup, you need a group of players performing at the same time at their highest level.' 'So that shows how difficult it is, and what a great achievement that is for a country like India to be able to win it.'
Indian tennis stars Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna advanced to the quarter-finals of the women's and mixed doubles events respectively after notching up contrasting victories with their partners at the Australian Open.
Meet India's newest Girls' Doubles pair of Mihika Jain and Mahak Yadav.
The top seeded pair beat the unseeded combination of Abigail Spears of the United States and Mexico's Santiago Gonzalez 6-1, 2-6, 11-9 in a thrilling mixed doubles final.
Prannoy and Sen played five times in 2022 with Sen coming into the match with a slender 3-2 advantage.
World No 26 Satwik and Ashwini showed their grit as they recovered from a mid-game slump to outwit the sixth seeded Indonesian pair
Fourth-seeded Rahul surpassed compatriot Karan Rajan Rajarajan 21-15, 21-13 in the summit clash to lay claim to the title at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Saturday.
Returning to action after nearly two months, Saina, who made last-minute withdrawals from Indonesia Open and last week's Japan Open because of injuries, got past Chaiwan 21-17, 21-19 in her opening round contest.
Sania Mirza capped off her glorious Grand Slam career with a runners-up finish alongside 'best friend' Rohan Bopanna in the Australian Open mixed doubles final in Melbourne on Friday.
Defending champion Lakshya Sen looked in fine fettle as he registered a straight-game win over compatriot H S Prannoy to make a winning start to his title defence at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Delhi, on Tuesday.
In the mixed doubles event, Satwiksairak Rankreddy and Ashwini Ponnappa started their campaign on a winning note. The duo beat the German combine of Marvin Seidel and Linda Efler in straight games 21-14, 31-19.
The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men's doubles at the London Olympics, losing 3-6, 4-6 to the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, on Tuesday.
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