Badminton

London 2012 Olymoics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal played the first match for India and she conceded it after retiring hurt with an unknown injury against Spa'n's Clara Azurmendi. The Indian had lost the first game 20-22 at that point and it's not clear if she will be fit enough to play the next tie.

Bhagat, a native of Bihar's Hajipur town in Vaishali district had natural talent in sports. "He used to beat any person in the city during his childhood. When he was just five years old, he became a polio victim. As our financial state was not good and my sister Kishuni Devi and her husband Kailash Bhagat did not have a child, they adopted Pramod and took him to Bhubaneswar," said Rama Bhagat.

The 2020 French Open champion Swiatek, who came back from 3-6, 6-6 down to scrape past Fiona Ferro of France in the previous round, needed two hours and 17 minutes to overcome a surging Kontaveit. Kontaveit had won their first two meetings, including a tough fourth round of the Australian Open last year. But Swiatek beat Kontaveit during her attempted title defence at the French Open earlier this season, and she made it two in a row in New York, levelling their head-to-head.

Bhagat, the World No 1 in his category and the reigning world champion, beat the Ukrainian 21-12, 21-9 in 25 minutes. This was the second win for Bhagat in this three-player Group, jumping to a big lead in both games before sealing an impressive victory. Bhagat had beaten compatriot Manoj Sarkar in straight games in his opening match in Tokyo. The SL3 category has six players divided into two groups,

Hundreds of fans poured in and gave Sindhu a befitting welcome with drums and dhols. Sindhu had created history by becoming the first Indian women to win two Olympic medals for the country. The government of Andhra Pradesh has announced to reward of Rs 30 lakh for the ace shuttler who had also won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Sindhu, looking to add a gold medal to the silver she won in Rio, dominated her Japanese rival at the net, created points with her disguised shots, and completed straight game wins. The Indian 26-year-old Indian shuttler from Hyderabad was in total control of the first game and then quelled a strong fightback by Akane to reach the semifinals for the second successive Olympics.

Mia, who was ranked 11th in the world a couple of years back, had sent Sindhu packing from the Thailand Open in January this year, found the Indian star, silver medallist at the Rio Olympics and gunning for gold here, too strong on Thursday and could not play her usual game as Sindhu took control from the start.

Sindhu's better court coverage and her use of the angles was the key to her victory against the 28-year old Cheung, who lost her sixth consecutive career match to the tall Indian shuttler. The sixth-seeded Sindhu raced to an 11-5 lead as Cheung fruitlessly tried to push the 26-year old Indian deep into the corners of the forehand backcourt, ending up pushing the shuttles long.

However, India's hope in men's singles, B Sai Praneeth suffered a shock loss against Misha Zilberman of Israel in his first Groupd D match. The Indian pair won the first game before the Chinese Taipei duo bounced back in the second game. The final game was closely fought till the end as the Indians ensured they wouldn't give in. The Chinese Taipei pair seemed to have moved into a decisive lead at 16-13. But Chirag and Satwik refused to budge.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) awarded bipartite quota places to Suhas L. Yathiraj in men's singles SL4 and Manoj Sarkar in men's singles SL3, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) said in a release on Friday. The addition of the two para shuttlers also boosted India's medal prospects in the two men's singles categories. India already has Bhagat in men's singles SL3.