Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal survived a scare from Hye Youn Hwang of Korea before reaching the semi-finals of the Indonesian Open Super Series in Jakarta on Friday. The world No 8 Indian ace beat the 18th-ranked Hwang 21-7, 13-21, 21-15 in a tough women's singles quarter-final that lasted 45 minutes. Sixth-seed Saina next faces seventh seeded Chinese Lan Lu in the Saturday's semi-finals.
Olympian Anup Sridhar's challenge fizzled out but Anand Pawar survived a stiff one to emerge the lone Indian qualifier to reach the main draw at the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Olympic gold medal pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia were beaten by an unheralded British duo in the men's doubles final of the US $200,000 Aviva Open in Singapore on Sunday. Anthony Clark and Nathan Robertson, ranked 19th in the world, shocked the No 1 ranked Indonesians in a dominant 21-12, 21-11 victory in the fifth Super Series event of the year, which continues next week in Jakarta.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.'
Peter Thangaraj, the towering Indian goalkeeper who twice figured in the Asian All-star football team in the 1960s, passed away in Bokaro on Monday night. Thangaraj, 72, died of a massive heart attack, a source close to the family said.
Indian shuttler Anand Pawar failed to make the main draw of the Indonesian Open badminton tournament after a 17-21, 18-21 loss to Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark in the qualifying opener of the Super Series event in Jakarta.
Though he left a mixed legacy, especially a dubious human rights record for allegedly having killed more than 500,000 people after he seized power in 1960s in an anti-Communist campaign, Asian leaders praised Suharto for having built the Indonesian economy.
Yesterday, women's coach Harendra Singh was made in-charge of the men's side, while men's coach Sjoerd Marijne was re-designated the women's coach in a rejigging of roles by the Hockey India following the medalless show of the teams at last month's Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Divers on Tuesday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder and may have located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jet in the Java Sea as experts will now use data from the two crucial black box devices to determine the sequence of events that brought the flight down. The cockpit voice recorder, that possesses the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the choppy waters on Monday.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
The Indian men's hockey coach Harendra Singh is determined to seal India's 2020 Olympic berth in the upcoming Asian Games as he feels it will give the eight-time winners ample time to become realistic medal contenders in Tokyo.
Top Indian sprinter Dutee Chand on Friday smashed her own national record in the women's 100m dash on the fourth and final day of the 58th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Guwahati to establish herself as a gold medal contender in the upcoming Asian Games.
With her sights firmly set for the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games, Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik feels that quality preparation can only happen if there are at least two extended camps in foreign countries every year. "Before Olympics, we went to Spain for a training camp and we got to practise with a lot of quality wrestlers. I believe for better performances we need more foreign exposure where we compete with the top wrestlers from other countries," Sakshi, who is face of Delhi Sultans franchise in the Pro-Wrestling League (PWL) told PTI.
Early exits at Japan Open and Denmark Open proved costly for ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal as she lost her World No.1 crown to All England and World champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
Sandeep Chaudhary claimed the top honours with a best throw of 60.01m, which he managed in his third attempt.
Moments after pulling off the biggest title victory of her career, Saina Nehwal said the triumph at the Indonesian Super Series was a 'dream come true' but never expected it to come at such an early age. World No 8 Saina beat No 3 Chinese Lin Wang 12-21, 21-18, 21-9 in a 49-minute hard-fought summit showdown in Jakarta.
Ace Indian women's shuttler Saina Nehwal wrote a new chapter in badminton history when she won the Indonesian Open Super Series in Jakarta on Sunday. The 19-year-old World junior champion beat China's world No 3 Wang Lin 12-21, 21-18, 21-9 to become the first Indian to win a Super Series event.
Suharto, who seized power in 1966, was responsible for the killings of over half a million Communists and their supporters. He also spearheaded the invasion of East Timor and the suppression of separatist movements in Aceh and Papua. As Indonesia became prosperous and self-sufficient during his regime, corruption touched an all time high, with public funds being siphoned off by Suharto's friends and family members.
Mary will be up against fellow Indian and Asian Championships bronze medallist Nikhat Zareen in a blockbuster semi-final as the duo confirmed two medals for India.
It is often said that the India-Indonesia relationship is overshadowed by mutual neglect.
Mirabai has been subjected to an astonishing 45 dope tests in the last four years but has come out clean each time.
Saina Nehwal beat local favourite Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari 21-12, 21-14 while compatriot Anup Sridhar went down fighting 21-23, 21-9, 21-14 to world number 16 Joachim Persson of Denmark in the first round.
Star India shuttler Saina Nehwal has signed a two-year deal with leading sports management group, IOS Sports & Entertainment. IOS will now manage Saina's endorsements, appearances, brand profiling, patents, licensing and digital rights, images and visibility on social networking sites.
'I could not believe that the prime minister knew me.'
Available on both Android and iOS, the company has partnered with Cleartrip and Yatra. Shameen Alauddin reports.
Asian Games gold medallist Manjit Singh, who doesn't have a regular job, on Tuesday requested the sports ministry to include him in the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme to prepare for the upcoming big events like the 2020 Tokyo Games
World No.22 Srikanth beat the Japanese qualifier 21-11, 21-19 in a 37-minute clash of the $1,000,000 event.
Besides Surat, which will also be the world's fastest growing city during 2019-35, the other nine cities are Agra, Bengaluru Hyderabad, Nagpur, Tiruppur, Rajkot, Tiruchirappalli, Chennai and Vijayawada.
Sindhu and compatriot Saina Nehwal have lost 22 matches between them to Tai.
India suffered two heart-breaking losses to South Korea in the the men's and women's compound archery finals to settle for a silver each at the Asian Games in Jakarta on Tuesday.
A sore threat is often the price he ends up paying for unleashing his verbal volleys and PR Sreejesh said he had come prepared.
Defending champions India continued their goal-scoring spree and spanked Japan 8-0 to register their third consecutive win in the men's hockey competition at the Asian Games, in Jakarta, on Friday.
Iran hurt India's pride in kabaddi yet again as it delivered a second straight knockout punch to the sport's most successful nation in the women's gold medal match of the 18th Asian Games, in Jakarta, on Thursday.
Vinesh Phogat created history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold medal at the Asian Games, brushing aside her rivals with remarkable ease in the 50kg category.
"We can't be overwhelmed by defeats or victories. It won't lead you anywhere," Sushil added.
In-form PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to break new grounds as they spearhead India's charge for an elusive gold at the 18th Asian Games badminton event which begins with the team competitions, in Jakarta, on Sunday.
The wet and windy conditions at the Cengkareng Golf Club could not dampen Jeev Milkha Singh's game and the Indian got off to an impressive start with a five-under 65 that had him tied third after the first round of the Enjoy Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open on Thursday.
At a time when his former teammate Sawaiyan Majhi has been appointed Indian recurve coach, the 33-year-old would look to bring his playing career back on track with a second medal from the Asian Games in Indonesia.