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.
While Saina made short work of USA's Beiwan Zhang, second seed Sindhu had to dig deep to get the better of Japanese Sayaka Sato.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down fighting to Olympic champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Chinese Taipei at the Japan Open.
Brimming with confidence, India will again look to punch above their weight when they run into 14-time winners Indonesia in the final of Thomas Cup in Bangkok on Sunday, seeking to create history one more time.
Pusarla Sindhu romped into the final of the World Badminton Championships, trouncing China's Chen Yu Fei 21-7, 21-14 in semi-finals, in Basel, on Saturday.
World champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn crashed out of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament
His backhand blocks and forehand low returns reaped dividends but an alert Gemke managed to grab a four-point cushion at the interval.
Top Indian shuttlers, PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the women's singles quarter-finals and men's singles pre-quarterfinals, respectively, of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Kuching.
Expectations from the Indian male shuttlers will also be high, given their exploits in recent months.
Both enter finals in Singles of the Swiss Open
Verma who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke
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.
Nehwal has had a troubled run in this year as she has now faced exits from a tournament in the first round five times.
Srikanth said winning for the country was a big motivating factor for the team.
Praneeth said he needs to work on his fitness to trouble big players such as two-time world champion Kento Momota.
Indian badminton team created history on Sunday as they lifted the Thomas Cup trophy for the very first time.
He was hailed as the next big thing when he shocked five-time world and two-time Olympic champion, Lin Dan in the final of China Open Super Series Premier event, a performance that also held out promise of a medal at the Rio Olympics.
Olympic medallist Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal entered the semi-finals of the Indonesia Masters' tournament after a straight-game win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.
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.
Two-time silver medallist P V Sindhu produced yet another commanding performance as she demolished Beiwen Zhang of United States in straight games to advance to the quarter-finals of the BWF Badminton World Championships.
P V Sindhu, will have to punch above its weight to salvage any hopes of a medal after being handed a tough draw in the badminton event at the 18th Asian Games.
China and Indonesia won the Badminton Asia Team Championships in the women and men's categories respectively at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
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.
Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram emerged as the lone survivor at the Korea Open after he defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent to reach the quarterfinals of the men's singles event even as P V Sindhu bowed out of the Super Series tournament, in Seoul, on Thursday.
India men's dream run in the ongoing Badminton Asia Team Championships came to an end after a 1-3 semi-final loss to Indonesia, in Hyderabad, on Saturday.
P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth scored contrasting victories to enter the quarter-finals of the US $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Penang, on Thursday.
The Indian women's team qualified for the quarter-finals in the Uber Cup badminton tournament despite a 2-3 defeat to 2014 runners-up Japan in their third and final Group D match, in Kunshan, China, on Wednesday. The men's team, however, continued its dismal run in the Thomas Cup and crashed out after being blanked 0-5 by Indonesia in their third Group B match at the Kunshan Sports Center Stadium.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
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