All England championships News

Gayatri and Treesa had reached the semi-finals in the last edition as well when they were handed a spot in the main draw at the last moment

The two-time Olympic-medallist lost 17-21 11-21 in the 39-minute women's singles contest to China's Zhang Yi Man, continuing her poor run.

World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen reached the final of the 2022 All England Open Badminton Championships after beating Malaysia`s Lee Zii Jia 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in the semi-finals on Saturday.

India's rising star in badminton Lakshya Sen known no stopping. The 20-year-old shuttler is in the form of his life, having beaten current Olympic Champion Viktor Axelsen at German Open only a few days back. 

Indian shuttler is taking some rapid strides in the men's senior badminton. 

 Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal began their All England Championships campaign with easy straight-game wins over their respective opponents in the women's singles here on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kashyap put up a brave fight before going down to top seeded Japanese Kento Momota 13-21, 2-22 in 42 minutes. In other results, Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi ended the campaign of Indian men's combo of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila with a 21-13, 21-12 win. In the men's singles, seeded eight, Srikanth lost to Ireland's unseeded player Nguyen Nhat 11-21, 21-15, 12-21.

The London Olympics bronze medallist Saina complained she couldn’t practice for the tournament. The 2015 runners-up at All England, Saina had to go through a similar experience in Thailand in January when she had returned positive in a third COVID-19 test but was cleared to compete later after further investigation. Indian badminton couple Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap have also been left confused less than 24 hours before the start of the Super 1000 tournament after the latter’s tests for COVID-19 came ‘inconclusive’.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap will open against world number one Japanese Kento Momota. Fifth seed Sindhu will kick off her campaign with a clash against Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah and is likely to face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals. London Olympics bronze medallist Saina has drawn in-form seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her first round and might meet Scotland's Kristy Gilmour next.

Saina has been troubled by injuries of late. After her knee surgery in 2016, she has been striving hard to return to her peak form. She was World No. 1 for a few weeks in 2015.

Saina had won the India Open women's singles title in 2015. Olympic silver medallist and former champion PV Sindhu will now be India's only title contender in women's singles.

Saina is expected to take on two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, while Srikanth will face world no 1 Kento Momota of Japan.

India's formidable duo of PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will have no dearth of motivation as they aim to win the coveted All England Championships starting on Wednesday -- something their mentor Pullela Gopichand won 17 summers back.

The All England Championship is considered to be the ultimate glory for any shuttler worth his salt and in India, only Prakash Padukone (1980) and Gopichand (2001) earned their rights to stand on the victory podium.

Badminton ace PV Sindhu Sunday said that she aimed for the top spot in the sport and expressed hope that she would do well in the forthcoming All England Badminton Championships and the Commonwealth Games.