Badminton

Sen, ranked world No 11, defeated world No 7 Jia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in an exciting semi-final clash which lasted for one hour and 16 minutes. With this win, Lakshya became the first Indian since Pullela Gopichand's famous victory in 2001 to contest in the men's singles final of the prestigious BWF Super 1000 event.

With this, Lakshya became only the third Indian men's player to enter the semi-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships. Prakash Padukone in 1980, 1981 and Pullela Gopichand in 2001 were the only Indian men's singles players to have made the All England Open semi-finals in the open era previously. While Padukone finished as runners-up in 1981, Gopichand won the title in 2001.

Two-time Olympic medallists began the match strongly and raced to a handy lead after the early exchanges. Wang Zhi Yi tried to pull the game back but Sindhu's early momentum proved to be the difference. In the second game, the India ace continued to dominate her Chinese opponent and went up 9-0 in quick time. She went on to seal the match in 42 minutes.

Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal advanced to the second round of the 2022 All England Open Badminton Championships after winning their respective women's singles matches, here on Wednesday. Sindhu, the world No 7, defeated Chinese world No 17 Wang Zhi Yi 21-18, 21-13 in her first round match of the BWF Super 1000 tournament.

According to information received here, Kumar, the 35-year-old from Punjab, first paired up with Parul Dalsukhbhai Parmar to defeat fellow Indian pair of Ruthick Ragupathi and Manasi Joshi 21-17, 21-18 in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 final before he along with Chirag Baretha claimed the men's doubles SL3-SL4+SU5 title.

World No 1 Pramod Bhagat has won two silver and a bronze medal at the recently concluded Iberdrola Spanish Para Badminton International 2022. World No 2 Sukant Kadam also ended up with a bronze. The Padma Shree Awardee went down to World No 2 England's Daniel Bethell in straight sets, the score line read 9-21, 13-21. The match seemed much closer than what the score line reads and lasted for 39 minutes.

India's Lakshya Sen stormed into the men's singles final at the German Open 2022, stunning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event here on Saturday.

The Indian contingent had a mixed day at the German Open BWF World Tour Super 300 badminton event its hopes in the women's section ended with P.V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal exiting while Kidambi Srikanth and H.S Prannoy made it to the men's singles quarter-finals on Thursday.

"I was criticised about how I am and how I look. When a woman is candid and articulates her opinions freely, it is never taken in a right way. I was called 'Made in China' and was asked to prove my nationality," Gutta told News18, on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Sindhu registered a dominating 21-8, 21-7 win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan to enter the second round. With this win, she extended her head-to-head record against the Thai shuttler to 15-1. The two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu started the match swinging and raced to an 11-4 lead at the first break.