Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu says losing close matches from advantageous position dealt a blow to her confidence and she is looking to overcome it by working on the mental aspect of her game.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu made a winning start to her maiden campaign at the prestigious BWF World Super Series Final, defeating higher-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in an entertaining opening women's singles Group B match in Dubai on Thursday. Sindhu, who recently clinched the China Super Series Premier and reached the finals at Hong Kong Open, eked out a 12-21 21-8 21-15 win over World No. 8 Yamaguchi in an exciting clash which lasted little over an hour. In the opening game, Sindhu conceded a 3-6 lead early on as she faltered with her strokes even as Yamaguchi grabbed points with her deception and riding on her rival's mistakes to go 11-5 up at the break.
Pullela Gopichand salutes P V Sindhu on her superb showing that saw her return with a silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
Satyanarayana, who has coached Rio Paralympics gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu, has been dropped from the list of this year's Dronacharya awardees due to a criminal case pending against him before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Saket in Delhi.
The government has rolled out its ambitious TOP (Target Olympic Podium) Scheme, under which 2016 Olympics medal prospects will be funded for their specialised world class training and top-level competition, and offered ace discus thrower Seema Punia a budget of Rs 75 lakhs till the Rio Games next year.
After losing seven successive finals, PV Sindhu finally redeemed herself with the gold medal at the World Tour Finals.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu avenged her heart-breaking loss at the Rio Games to two-time World Champion Carolina Marin with a thrilling straight-game victory in a do-or-die, women's singles Group B contest and sealed her place at the semi-finals of the BWF World Super Series Finals in Dubai on Friday.
National coach Pullela Gopichand on Wednesday defended Indian Badminton League's decision to reduce the base price of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa before the IBL Players' auction, saying it was done so that the doubles specialists do not incur financial loss.
PV Sindhu is keen to work harder on various aspects of her game and put up better performances against top players in the coming year.
In a bid to keep herself fit for the packed international schedule this year, Indian shuttler P V Sindhu will not be defending her women's singles title at the $120,000 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament to be held at Johor Bahru from March 25-30.
Top shuttlers, including Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain and Rio silver medallists P V Sindhu, will be for grabs when the high-profile Players' Auction for the lucrative Premier Badminton League (PBL) gets underway in New Delhi on Wednesday. Besides Marin and Sindhu, Olympic bronze winner Viktor Axelsen of Denmark will be among the 16 Olympic medallists who have confirmed their participation at the second edition of the event to be held from January 1 to 14.
Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram notched up a superb straight-game win over Estonia's Raul Must in the finals to defend his men's singles title at the Dutch Open Grand Prix in Almere, The Netherlands on Sunday.
India's trailblazing gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Thursday denied reports that she was returning the BMW car presented to her by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for her historic performance at the Rio Olympic Games.
Recovering from an ankle injury, star India shuttler Saina Nehwal said she will look to get back to her full fitness during the three weeks break after the India Open next month.
Kidambi Srikanth and two-time bronze medallist P V Sindhu will headline a 21-member Indian contingent as they gun for the elusive gold medal at the World Badminton Championships starting in Glasgow on Monday.
When Pusarla Sindhu won a gold medal at the 2012 Asian junior badminton championships, her cricketing hero Sachin Tendulkar presented her with a car. One can only guess at the reception the 21-year-old player will receive when she returns into the arms of 1.3 billion Indians after becoming the country's most successful female Olympian with her silver-medal performance in Rio. The fact that she had been beaten 19-21 21-12 21-15 by Spanish world number one Carolina Marin in the final mattered little for a country that until Friday had won a solitary bronze at these Games.
When it boils down to matters of discipline, Pullela Gopichand has no peers with PV Sindhu learning it the hard way since her formative years at the legendary coach's academy.
Young Kidambi Srikanth continued his meteoric rise in world badminton as he ended the season by becoming only the third Indian male shuttler to break into the top-five, reaching a career-high fourth after hovering in the 40s in the beginning of the year.
Srikanth credits Gopichand for all recent success - the two back-to-back Super Series titles and says, 'My focus is on World Championships, not thinking of rankings'
After much dilly-dallying, the Sports Ministry has included Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in the 'Target Olympic Podium Scheme' (TOP) scheme, putting an end to the controversy surrounding the doubles duo's complaint of bias against the Ministry and chief national coach Pullela Gopichand.
India's top shuttler Saina Nehwal has split with National coach Pullela Gopichand and sought the help of former chief coach Vimal Kumar to prepare for the prestigious Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Confident about their preparation for the upcoming World Championships, India's chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand said the home shuttlers have the best chance of winning multiple medals at the prestigious tournament next month.
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.
'I have grown up in an environment where the dominant narrative of Indian sporting achievement was -- We can't.' 'These achievers have fought hard, built on each other's body of work and knowledge, and have today changed the script to -- We can,' notes Rahul Dravid,cricketing legend.
Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal on Sunday headed for a gold medal showdown at the 18th Asian Games after their quarter-final victories ensured India's first ever women's singles medals at the continental event.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
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.
A day after Sania Mirza was accused of not attending Madhya Pradesh awards ceremony owing to her unacceptable demands, the agency which looks after the tennis star issued a statement saying that she didn't ask for any money to attend the event. The Indian Express reported on Wednesday that after Sania had accepted the invitation, her personal assistant made demands of a make-up kit worth Rs 75,000 and a chartered plane.
PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced into the second round while Saina Nehwal and Sai Praneeth made first-round exits at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Wednesday.
A fairytale ending eluded him as Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram's rampaging run was brought to a halt by defending champion and World No 1 Chen Long of China in the final of the $ 600,000 Korea Open Super Series event, in Seoul, on Sunday.
The parents of P V Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman singles player on Friday to ensure a medal at the ongoing World Badminton Championships, attributed their daughter's success to hard work and determination.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu suffered another heart-wrenching defeat against World No 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan to finish as runner-up at the Dubai Super Series Final in Dubai on Sunday.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist R M V Gurusaidutt is desperate to avenge India's Thomas Cup loss to Korea when they open their campaign against the hosts in badminton team event in the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon, Korea.
P V Sindhu on Sunday said the heart-breaking World Championship final loss was not on her mind when she was plotting the downfall of Japan's Nozomi Okuhara en-route to her Korea Open title in Seoul.
India badminton team have been accorded the top seed this time and are clubbed with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Scotland in Group A.
India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth believes the days of domination of Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei are over and the tournaments are more wide open than ever.
With a new campaign for Gatorade and renewed thrust on sports drinks, PepsiCo looks to make the most of the growing passion for fitness in the country.
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
The Sports Ministry confirmed on Thursday that it will stick to the original list of winners for the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, thereby dashing discus thrower Krishna Poonia's hopes of being conferred the country's highest sporting honour.
A decade after his triumph at the All England badminton championship, Gopichand cherishes the famous victory, writes Bikash Mohapatra.
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