Badminton

Double Olympic medallist Sindhu registered a 21-16, 21-8 win over Ongramrungphan in 49 minutes to claim the Super 300 crown. This was her second title of the year after winning the Syed Modi International in January. Ranked seventh in the badminton world rankings, Sindhu went into the final with a 15-1 head-to-head record over world No 11 Ongramrungphan.

Sindhu made it to the women's singles final with a hard-fought win over Thailand's Supanida Katethong. The former world champion beat Katethong 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 in the semi-final contest, which lasted for one hour and 19 minutes at the St Jakobshalle Arena. The Indian ace, ranked seventh in the badminton world rankings, faced a strong challenge from the 29th-ranked Supanida Katethong in the first game. But powerful smashes from Sindhu, coupled with some unforced errors from Katethong.

The four men's doubles players, He Jiting, Tan Qiang, Li Junhui (now retired), and Liu Yuchen were found to have violated BWF rules on betting, wagering, and irregular match results for failing to put in best efforts to win a match at the Fuzhou China Open 2018, the world governing body of badminton said in a statement on Friday.

India's two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and compatriot H.S Prannoy stormed into their respective women's and men's singles semi-finals at the Swiss Open here while the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy made its exit from the World Tour Super 200 event

Top India shuttlers -- Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and Saina Nehwal made a winning start in their respective events while the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Swiss Open BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament, here on Wednesday.

The All England Badminton Championship runner-up Lakshya Sen has broken into the top 10 of the men's singles badminton world rankings for the first time. The 20-year-old Lakshya Sen climbed two spots to reach ninth in the latest standings released on Tuesday.

The mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced to the second round as India were off to a sedate start at the Swiss Open BWF World Tour Super 300 event, which saw many withdrawals due to Covid-19 cases.

Coming from a badminton family -- his grandfather was a national-level player, father D.K Sen is a senior coach with Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru and brother Chirag Sen is a player and was ranked World No 2 in Junior Rankings in 2016 -- Lakshya was a successful junior player who is now blazing a trail in the senior circuit.

Attacking from the very first point, the world No. 1 and the reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark completely outplayed unseeded 20-year-old Lakshya Sen of India to regain the prestigious Yonex All-England Badminton crown - which he won in 2020 - in straight games 21-10, 21-15.

20-year-old Lakshya Sen of India is all set for the match of his career so far - the final of the YONEX All-England Badminton tournament on Sunday day - versus the No. 1 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. While Axelsen is the favourite, Sen has become a dangerous adversary. Sen, who is the world No. 11, said after his victory: "It's a dream and now there's one more match to go. I am focussed on one more match."