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Tag: Indian badminton

Swiss Open badminton: Treesa-Gayatri drag top Chinese pair to decider but exhaustion proves costly, again
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Swiss Open badminton: Treesa-Gayatri drag top Chinese pair to decider but exhaustion proves costly, again

There are no incremental improvements when playing World No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning for Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.The Indians had beaten the Chinese the first time they played, winning the decider 21-19 from 18-19 down in 2023. Treesa-Gayatri have since lost six times to the jaunty juggernaut, two women with tremendous power and stamina and sufficient mental strength. The 15-21, 21-15, 21-12 on Saturday in the semifinals of the Swiss Open means the Indians have now twice gone down 21-14 and 21-12 in the third set to them. So there’s no pattern as such apart from the satisfaction of dragging the top-ranked pair to deciders. But as Genghis Khan said, the beauty of an action lies in its completion. Story continues below this ad It is plainly clear that Indian plans...
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Swiss Open badminton: Sankar Subramanian stuns world No 2 Anders Antonsen in a huge upset in Basel
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Swiss Open badminton: Sankar Subramanian stuns world No 2 Anders Antonsen in a huge upset in Basel

In the year PV Sindhu won the World Championships in Basel – beating Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a scarcely believable scoreline – Anders Antonsen lost the men’s singles final 21-9, 21-3 in another result that made no logical sense. And in that very venue in Basel – St. Jakobshalle – Antonsen was at the receiving end of another massive defeat, late on Thursday night. India’s Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, ranked 64th currently, defeated the current world No 2 Antonsen 18-21, 21-12, 21-5 in a 66-minute contest. If the second game showed Sankar could push Antonsen to the distance, the decider scoreline was jaw-dropping. Antonsen was struggling with his radar for sure, missing the sidelines repeatedly and often misjudging the length of the shuttle on the backcourt, but it still is a remarkab...
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Sindhu’s search for form continues with defeat against world No 31; Srikanth beats Prannoy in clash of veterans
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Sindhu’s search for form continues with defeat against world No 31; Srikanth beats Prannoy in clash of veterans

The St. Jakobshalle in Basel is arguably PV Sindhu’s favourite venue on the world tour, with her 2019 World Championships gold coming at this very arena. She had also reached the Swiss Open finals back-to-back in 2021 and 2022, winning the title three years back. But, currently searching for some rhythm at the start of 2025, Sindhu suffered yet another first-round exit as world No 31 Julie Dawall Jakobsen edged past the Indian star 21-17, 21-19 in 39 minutes. It marked the end of a disappointing European leg for Sindhu, after losing in the round of 32 last week at the All England Open as well.Entering the court with a heavily taped right thigh, Sindhu was slow off the blocks, with Jakobsen moving the Indian star around on the court. There was little to separate the two players in the early...
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All England Open: Unforced errors, lack of discipline on court costs Lakshya Sen; Treesa-Gayatri also ousted by Chinese
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All England Open: Unforced errors, lack of discipline on court costs Lakshya Sen; Treesa-Gayatri also ousted by Chinese

A flick of a switch could turn a merry happy-Holi day into a wretched one, and it was the inevitability of power and strength from Chinese shuttlers that brought two decimations inside two hours. First, Lakshya Sen continued the trend of an underwhelming show in big matches, as Li Shifeng whom he’s beaten previously with steady plans, punctured his dreams of a third All England semi-final with a 21-10, 21-16 loss. Then Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand couldn’t escape the peppering that Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning routinely subject the opponents to, in a 21-14, 21-10 win.While the Treesa-Gayatri result wasn’t shocking given how Liu-Tan are viewed as a pair that will change the basic ethos of women’s doubles through their power-game, the Sen result was worrying as he was neither nursing serious...
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All England: From Indian contenders to live streaming guide, all you need to know about big-ticket badminton event
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All England: From Indian contenders to live streaming guide, all you need to know about big-ticket badminton event

The All England Open starts on Tuesday with some of India’s top shuttlers like PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty pairing in action. With a rich history, the All England is one of the most prestigious events on the yearly badminton calendar. Here’s a look at what the draw looks like for Indians: Lakshya Sen: Though Sen will have father DK Sen and Korean Yoo Yong-Sung in his coaching corner guiding him through a relatively simple draw, the word out of Bengaluru is that women’s head coach Indonesian Irwansyah is likely to offer key inputs to the Sen campaign, having been based out of the Padukone academy these past months. Sen’s path is littered with extremely beatable names – Koki Watanabe, Jonatan Christie, Li Shifeng/HS Prannoy and Shi Yuqi in the t...
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All England: Indian badminton needs a deep run to shake off recent sense of despair
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All England: Indian badminton needs a deep run to shake off recent sense of despair

Two All England finals featuring Indians, and no titles, in the last 15 years – considered high-achieving for the sport – will go down as a serious inexplicable anomaly for badminton.One can spin it whichever way one likes – cynically, by saying that the All England is nothing special anymore, though nobody else in the badminton world believes that. Or that none of the Indians could quite time their peaks or work monkishly towards it like Prakash Padukone or Pullela Gopichand, did. But as yet another edition kicks off at Birmingham, it will remain a gaping hole in career summaries and a large unticked box for some of the biggest names in Indian badminton. It’s nearing a quarter of a century since Gopichand won the last one in 2001, when almost a fourth of present-day India wasn’t even born...
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Badminton: Ayush Shetty, who Viktor Axelsen finds similar to his style, reaches Orleans Masters semis with three big wins
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Badminton: Ayush Shetty, who Viktor Axelsen finds similar to his style, reaches Orleans Masters semis with three big wins

Soon after Viktor Axelsen sparred with Ayush Shetty in Dubai last year, he sent a note to the 19-year-old’s coach Vimal Kumar. “He texted saying, ‘Ayush is very similar to me’ and that he has a really good hit,” Vimal recalls. It was the 6 feet 4 inches looming frame on the court that Axelsen saw a mirror image of from across the net. Work in progress, but looming large as a threat to many players in coming years. On Friday in Orleans, another Dane Rasmus Gemke, no less pugnacious – age 28 and rank 31 – felt the sting of the downward hits and the surprise of some busy net play. Ayush, ranked No 48 beat Gemke 21-16, 21-23, 21-17 to make the Orleans Masters Super 300 semifinals at Palais des Sports. Ayush had wasted two match points in the second set, but Vimal said he was impressed with the...
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Coach Vimal Kumar deserves more credit, he’s been a rock solid guide for star players
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Coach Vimal Kumar deserves more credit, he’s been a rock solid guide for star players

‘Who is Vimal Kumar…?’ a throwaway casual, callous remark had made its way into the perpetual cesspit that is Twitter. It originated from the predictably ignorant spew-springs far away from either Bangalore, Hyderabad or Kerala, where the seasoned badminton coach hails from, and where the game has many that understand excellence.The scribbled ignorance wasn’t remarkable. But you had to wonder if a mere 10 years – 9 in August of 2024 actually – had been all that long, that the country had forgotten who guided Saina Nehwal to India’s first-ever World Championship final in 2015. Or its first All England final, after 14 years. But even shorter memories failed the deliberately disrespecting ones. For Vimal Kumar had been sitting right there in the coach’s chair, when Lakshya Sen too made All En...
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