pv sindhu

Hafiz, who lifted the All-England title in 2003, has signed a two-year contract with the Hyderabad-based academy and will be responsible for guiding the men's and women's singles players there. Sindhu is a product of the Sudhitra Badminton Academy, and will be undergoing training there for one or two days a week, reports said.

Coming back to action after a five-month-long injury layoff, Sindhu lost 12-21, 21-10, 15-21 in her first match since the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medal win. It was the first meeting between the Rio 2016 finalists since Marin beat Sindhu at the Swiss Open final in 2021.

Badminton Association of India had once again followed the system of picking the top players directly and conducting trials for the rest of the squad to pick a team that is capable of challenging for a medal in the prestigious continental competition. The last edition of the event in 2021 had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic and the Indian contingent would be keen to show how far they have come since 2019.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sindhu, who has 87,218 points from 26 tournaments, displaced arch-rival Carolina Marin of Spain in the fifth position. The Indian ace boasts a career-high ranking of world No.2, attained back in 2017-18, but ha'n't broken into the top five since September 2019, just following her world championships title win that year. PV Sindhu won the gold medal at the CWG 2022 earlier this year but has been out of action since then because of an ankle injury.

Despite picking up an injury early in the tournament, Sindhu beat Canada's Michelle Li in the women's singles final in Birmingham to win her maiden individual CWG gold medal. She was seen playing most of her matches with a strapped left leg. Later, it was discovered that the two-time Olympic medallist had sustained a stress fracture on her left ankle. The final leg of the sixth edition of the 'PNB MetLife JBC 2022' culminated at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Wednesday with the crowning of 10 badminton champions across five categories.

Sindhu is currently in Gujarat for the 36th National Games. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) took to social media to post a video of Sindhu, in which she can be seen keenly observing the process of diamond polishing. "Surat, the land of diamonds welcomed the diamond of Sports world, Badminton Champ @Pvsindhu1. Sindhu was invited to see the process of diamond polishing," wrote SAI Media in a tweet along with the video.

The 67-year-old actor shared a video of their meeting, giving fans a tour of her house, including her massive trophy collection. Starting from the trophies that she won for the Under-16 tournaments and the Olympics, Sindhu gave an inside view of all her accomplishments and the pride that she brought to the country through the sport.

"It is unfortunate that I will not be competing in the Games due to my injury. Had I been fit, I would have definitely represented my State (Telangana)," Sindhu was quoted as saying by the organising committee of the Games in a release on Saturday. "The National Games is a great opportunity for all the athletes and everyone I have spoken to is excited about it. I am sure the badminton matches will be very exciting," she said.

The duo has become the first men's doubles player from India to secure a BWF World Championships medal and only the second doubles pair after the women's team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa to secure a medal for the country in the prestigious tournament. The Indian pair, who entered the tournament on the back of clinching gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games recently, upset the Japanese pair, ranked No.2 in the tournament.

Prannoy came from a game down to beat the ninth-seeded Lakshya 17-21, 21-16, 21-17 in the round of 16. With this win, the veteran continued his fine run of form in the tournament having beaten former world champion Kento Momota in the previous round. The 30-year-old will next face China's Zhao Jun Peng in the last eight and will be assured of a first BWF World Championships medal if he wins.