Saina Nehwal played her heart out but lost to world number six Chen Wang of Hong Kong in an edge-of-the-seat semi-final of the World Super Series Masters Final in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
The enormity of her achievement has gradually started sinking in, but for Saina Nehwal, standing on the podium and receiving an Olympic medal, still feels like a dream.
Indian ace Saina Nehwal's poor form in the international arena continued as she lost to Japan's Minatsu Mitani 21-19, 22-24, 19-21 in a hard-fought three-game battle in her opening match of the BWF Superseries Finals in Kuala Lumpur.
Arvind Bhatt kept India's flag flying in the tournament, moving into the second round of the men's singles with a straight games victory. He was at his ruthless best while demolishing Wee Chung Pei of Malaysia 21-9, 21-13 to set up a second round clash against Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic.
After a highly successful 2012, Saina Nehwal will look to start the new year on a winning note when she takes the court at the season-opening Korea Super Series Premier badminton tournament at Seoul on Wednesday.
Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and boxing hero Vijender Singh are among six sportspersons who were named brand ambassadors on Tuesday for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
Saina Nehwal says Tai Tzu-Ying's repertoire of shots and the ability to not restrict her game to a set pattern makes the World No 1 from Chinese Taipei a very difficult player to beat at the moment.
Saina Nehwal made a perfect start to the new season, reaching the women's singles final of the $ 350,000 Indonesia Masters with a thrilling straight-game win over world no 4 Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand in Jakarta, on Saturday.
On a sweet-sour day for India, Saina Nehwal crashed out of the women's singles but the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju earned a shot at the World Super Series Masters title, in Johor Bahru.
PV Sindhu had to dig deep to down a fighting Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam but Saina Nehwal did not break any sweat as India's top two shuttlers advanced to the women's singles second round at the 18th Asian Games, in Jakarta, on Thursday.
The Lok Sabha on Monday felicitated badminton star Saina Nehwal and tennis player Sania Mirza.
The India ace proved too good for Jie Liu of China into the girls' singles semi-finals at the World Junior Badminton Championships.
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.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who had a disappointing Asian Games, rose a rung to reclaim a career-high second spot after 13 weeks in the latest Badminton World Federation rankings.
Saina Nehwal jumped seven spots to reach a career best ranking of 27.
In the absence of top Chinese shuttlers, Indian ace Saina Nehwal has been seeded number one and handed a relatively easy draw in the upcoming Yonex Sunrise Indian Open badminton tournament, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from April 23-28.
Saina Nehwal crossed the first hurdle comfortably but highlight of the day for the Indians came when Ajay Jayaram registered a stunning victory over world number seven Tien Minh Nguyen to sent him crashing out of Japan Super Series in straight-games in Tokyo.
In a shock for Indian fans, star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap fell by the wayside after losing their respective singles matches at the 17th Asian Games on Friday.
Top seed Saina Nehwal survived a scare from little-known local player Nichaon Jindapon before prevailing in three games, in the opening round of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok on Wednesday. The world No 5 Indian won 21-13, 16-21, 21-15 in 59 minutes, at the Cu Sport Complex.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slipped a rung from her career-best position of world No 2 in the latest international badminton rankings released on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal staged a splendid recovery to enter the third round of the World Badminton Championships at the Pierre de Coubertin stadium in Paris on Wednesday. The world No 2 Indian ace, seeded second, got the better of Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei 20-22, 21-15, 21-8.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal says she still needs to fine-tune some aspects of her game before the London Olympics.
India's ace shuttler and a brand ambassador for Commonwealth Games Saina Nehwal on Saturday created a flutter by questioning the country's capability of holding such a mega event but retracted her controversial statement within moments.
Top seed Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Asian Badminton Championship after losing her semi-final match against Chinese qualifier Xuerui Li, bringing down the curtains on the Indian challenge at the event in New Delhi on Saturday.
Saina Nehwal made a rampaging start to her London Olympics build-up by winning the Thailand Open last week and the Indian ace will now look to test her game against the Chinese when she starts her campaign in the Indonesia Super Series Premier in Jakarta on Wednesday.
India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal's poor form in the international arena continued as she crashed out of the $300,000 Singapore Super Series after losing to Eriko Hirose of Japan in a hard-fought three-game battle in her opening round women's singles match in Singapore.
Star shuttler Saina Nehwal would have rejuvenated after a one and a half month break following the IBL. The defending champion will now eye her maiden title of the season.
After winning three successive international tournaments, badminton maven Saina Nehwal is confident of conquering next month's World Championship in Paris.
Relieved after securing her maiden title of the year, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal said more than her technique and strokeplay, she needs to work on becoming a calmer player as that will improve all other aspects of her game.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina beat Tunjung 21-11, 21-12 in a one-sided semifinal match that lasted just 30 minutes.
Gopichand also wondered to why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar 'never had anything positive to say about him'.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal retained third place in the latest world badminton rankings, announced on Friday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, shooter Gagan Narang and India cricketer VVS Laxman were among several sportspersons who were the part of the Queen's Baton Relay that arrived in Hyderabad on Saturday.
London Olympics bronze medallist shuttler, Saina Nehwal notched up a comfortable straight-game victory over Thailand's Sapsiree Taerattanachai at the French Open Super Series in Paris on Thursday and stayed on course for her second successive title after Denmark Open triumph last week.
The London Olympics bronze medallist displaced Spain's Carolina Marin, who defeated her in the women's final of the World Championships in Jakarta last Sunday.
The struggle of Indian women shuttlers on the BWF circuit is quite apparent, but Saina Nehwal backs her colleagues by saying that even the strong Chinese players are finding it difficult to dish out strong performances on a consistent basis and expressed hope that the lean patch of the singles players will end soon.
No Indian athlete since Independence has won multiple medals at a single Games.
Saina Nehwal went down fighting to third seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong 21-17, 13-21, 16-21.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will promote Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers after she was made brand ambassador of the media group which owns the team. The 20-year-old Hyderabadi signed a three-year deal with Deccan Chronicle at a glittering function in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal reached the women's singles semi-finals with a comfortable straight-game win, but compatriot P V Sindhu failed to cross the quarterfinal hurdle in the $750,000 Star Australian Super Series, in Sydney on Friday.
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