Badminton

Second-seeded Russian mixed doubles player Rodion Alimov tested positive for the virus and has withdrawn from the event. His mixed doubles partner Alina Davletova has also withdrawn after being identified as a close contact. Though, world's badminton governing body didn't disclose the identity of players, Alimov himself confirmed the development via his Instagram account.

Sen, the third seed and the highest-ranked player in the fray after the top two seeds Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth withdrew due to Covid positive tests, will now face Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia on Saturday. Sindhu will take on Thailand's Supanida Katethong, who received a walkover in the quarter-finals after Singapore's Jia Min Yeo conceded the match due to a high fever.

The 16-year-old Mir jumped three places to reach the top position in the junior world rankings in the women's singles category with 10,810 points. With this achievement, Tasnim has managed to do something which has never been achieved by any Indian girl, including two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and London bronze winner Saina Nehwal.

The 24-year-old, seeded fifth at the India Open, defeated Kidambi Srikanth in the World Championships final, and the Indian is expected to be his biggest challenger at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall along with bronze medallist Lakshya Sen, who is playing in this tournament for the first time. "There are a lot of good players here and it is not going to be an easy competition for sure. Everyone is coming here to do well… same for me too. I also want to do well and I also want to win this tournament," said Loh.

It will be a busy season next year for the Indians as they will play at least 20 events, starting with the Yonex Sunrise India Open from January 11-16 in Delhi and ending with the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2022, December 14-22 in Guangzhou, China. Apart from Sindhu, Indian badminton has high hopes from Srikanth, Sen, Parupalli Kashyap, B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in 2022.

Tokyo Paralympics gold medalist Pramod Bhagat and bronze medallist Manoj Sarkar registered wins at the ongoing 4th National Para-Badminton Championship, here on Saturday. Playing in front of the home crowd, Bhagat beat Chandra Prakash in straight-sets, 21-12, 21-18 in Round of 32 of the men's singles SL3 category.

The 28-year old Srikanth lost 15-21, 20-22 to his opponent Loh in a 43-minute summit clash to settle for a silver. Previously, legendary Prakash Padukone (bronze in 1983) and B Sai Praneeth (bronze in 2019) were the medal winners in men's singles while the 20-year-old Lakshya Sen joined the elusive list on Saturday after losing to Srikanth in a nail-biting semi-final clash.

Lakshya won the first game but Srikanth came back strongly in the second game and used his experience to seal the victory and reach his maiden World Championship final, He was trailing in the decider before coming back with a last-ditch push to reach the maiden final of his career.

Defending champion Sindhu beat Thailand's ninth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-14, 21-18 in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted 48 minutes, to stay on course for a second successive world badminton title. This was the fifth win for world No 7 Sindhu over the 10th-ranked Chochuwong from eight meetings. The Thai had beaten Sindhu in the previous two meetings, including the one at the BWF World Tour Finals earlier this month.

Two-time Olympic medallist beat her opponent Yamaguchi 21-15, 15-21, 21-19 in an exciting clash that lasted one hour 10 minutes. She will now face South Korea's An Seyoung, who beat Thai top seed Pornpawee Chochuwong 25-23, 21-17 in the other semis, in the final. It was Sindhu and Yamaguchi's fourth meeting of the year. While Indian beat the Japanese shuttler at the All England Open and the Tokyo Olympics quarter-finals, Yamaguchi came out on top in the most recent meeting - the Indonesia Masters semi-finals.