Air India, Andhra Pradesh bag team titles in junior nationals

Air India and Andhra Pradesh bagged the boy's and girl's team championships respectively in the Junior Inter-State team championship in Imphal, Manipur.
While Air India got the better of Chattisgarh 2-1 in the boy's final, the Andhra girls piped West Bengal by the same margin.

Sai Praneeth, Pantawane win singles titles in Bahrain International

India's B Sai Praneeth and Arundhati Pantawane bagged the men's and women's singles titles in the Bahrain International challenge badminton tournament with hard fought victories in the summit clash.
In the men's final, third seed Sai Praneeth rallied from a game down to get the better of top seed Niluka Karnaratne of Sri Lanka 14-21, 21-14, 21-17 while Nagpur girl Arundhati Pantawane fought back from a game down and a slump in the decider to get the better of Tanvi Lad 20-22, 21-12, 21-19 to lift the women's singles title.
Pantawane, a trainee of the Gopichand Academy, was staring defeat when she trailed 13-17 in the decider before the world number 51 fought back with a better tactical approach to win her maiden international title.
In the men's doubles, top seed Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas of Indiagot the better of K Nandagopal and Jishnu Sanyal 21-18, 19-21, 21-18 to lift the title. 

Injured Saina pulls out of China Open

Saina Nehwal has pulled out of the China Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament to be played in Shanghai from November 13-18 citing a knee injury.

The London Olympic bronze medallist had played with a strapped knee during the Denmark Super Series Premier, which she won, and the French Super Series in which she lost in the final.

The world number 3 has also submitted the medical certificate, which is a must for all top-10 players if they wish to withdraw from any Premier event.

According to the rules formulated by the Badminton World Federation, it is mandatory for all top-10 players to participate in Premier events – barring injuries -- and be part of the promotional activities two days prior to the tournament.

If Saina decides to stay away from the promotional activities then she will have to shell out $5000 as a fine. She had paid a similar fine in 2011 when she skipped the promotional events before the Super Series Finals.

Indian challenge ends in world juniors

India's challenge in the World Junior badminton championship in Chiba, Japan came to an end when the three boy's singles players were shown the door in the fourth round on Thursday.
Mumbai boy Harsheel Dani managed to stretch 5/8 seed Teck Zhi Soo of Malaysia for almost an hour but lost 21-13, 19-21, 21-15, while Rohit Yadav was no match to Chinese Xue Song, going down 21-10, 21-12 in 40 minutes.
In the other fourth round match, Pratul Joshi fought hard before surrendering 20-22, 21-16, 21-16 against Kwang Hee Heo of Korea.

Boys keep Indian hopes alive

Indian challenge in the World Junior badminton championship will now depend entirely on how the boys perform in the next few days after the country's challenge came to an end in women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles on the second day of competition in Chiba, Japan on Wednesday.
In the absence of Asian Junior champion P V Sindhu, the girls contingent was not expected to bring home a medal but none of them could even manage to clear the first three rounds.
However, there will three singles representatives in the fourth round in the boy's section with rookie Harsheel Dani leading the charge. Dani, who recently won the Sushant Chipalkatti u-19 tournament in Pune, upset 9/16 seed Matthias Almer of Austria 21-19, 21-13 to set up a fourth round clash with 5/8 seed Teck Zho soo of Malaysia.
Also advancing to the fourth round were 5/8 seed C Rohit Yadav and Pratul Joshi. Rohit defeated Fikri Ihsandi Hamadi of Indonsia 21-11, 21-15 while Joshi packed off 9/16 seed Mahbub Thomi Azizan of Indonesia 23-21, 14-21, 22-20 in the third round encounters.

Inspired Mitani ends Saina’s winning run

Saina Nehwal was given a dose of her own medicine in the final of the French Super Series badminton tournament when the world number three came against an inspired opponent who was willing to retrieve every shuttle that came her way and forced the favourite to commit mistakes.

Japanese Minatsu Mitani, who was playing her first Super Series final, came up with a performance that reduced Saina into a mere spectator for the last 10 points as she won 21-19, 21-11 to become the first player from the country to win a Super Series title.

Mitani, who had lost to Saina in the second round of the Denmark Super Series premier last week, had accounted for sixth seed Jiang Yanjiao of China in the opening round and in the final proved that none of her victories over higher ranked opponents, enroute to the summit clash, were flukes.

The world number 26 showed exceptional court coverage to nullify Saina’s booming smashes and every time the rallies prolonged came up with either a cross court drop shot or a down the line smash from unexpected angles to catch the top seed out of position.

It only ended up frustrating Saina, who made a flurry of errors in the second game to hand the title to Mitani.

Impatient Ajay loses to Gade, Saina in quarters

Ajay Jayaram first lost his patience and then the match against Peter Gade of Denmark in the men’s singles second round of the French Open Super Series badminton tournament on Thursday.

The Indian dominated the rallies for the better part of the hour long encounter but the experience of Gade and Ajay’s inability to control his urge for winners ultimately turned the tide in the Dane’s favour as he won 18-21, 21-17, 21-14.

Gade was knocked out at this stage of his home tournament last week by a defensive minded Sourabh Verma of India and after Ajay took the first game and opened up a two point lead in the second, it looked like the Indian Oil employee had learned the way to counter the former world number one.

But it was then that Gade changed his tactics and began prolonging the rallies and Ajay made some elementary errors in an attempt to go for the kill.

The third game progressed on the same lines with Ajay opening a 9-6 lead and then going on the attack instead of holding his ground. The move backfired and all Gade had to do was to keep the shuttle in play for Ajay to make mistakes.

Earlier, Saina Nehwal eased through to the quarterfinals of the women’s singles with a 21-16, 21-13 victory over Thailand’s Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the second round.

The top seed, who was stretched in the first round, was at relative ease against the Thai girl and will now take on the winner of the match between seventh seed Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand and Aprilla Yuswandari  of Indonesia.