Ratchanok Intanon was cleared by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday who said the substance that had been administered to her was to treat a tendon injury and was allowed

Bangkok: Thai badminton star Ratchanok Intanon broke down in tears and spoke of her relief on Monday after being cleared of doping, ending fears her Olympic dreams had been scuppered.
The 21-year-old shuttler, who is beloved in Thailand and remains the kingdom's best chance for a medal in Rio, tested positive for a banned substance in May after a tournament in China.
But the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Monday cleared her after ruling that the substance had been administered to treat a tendon injury and was allowed.
"I was confident in my innocence and I am glad that I received justice. I will practise and hope to bring a medal back for Thais," she told reporters at a press conference in Bangkok.
"The Olympics is my dream," she added, before bursting into tears.
Rumours of the positive test result first surfaced in the Thai media last week, leaving fans on tenterhooks.
In a statement published on Monday, the BWF said Ratchanok tested positive for triamcinolone acetonide, a corticosteroid which is banned in most circumstances.
However, if administered directly into a muscle tendon for medical reasons it is allowed under the BWF's rules.
"The panel concluded that because the route of administration of the substance in the medical treatment process was intratendinous -- an authorised administration route -- no violation of the regulations was committed," the BWF said.
Patama Leeswadtrakul, president of the Badminton Association of Thailand, said doctors had been treating Ratchanok for pain in her right hand and back.
"We said it was used honestly to cure her injuries," she told reporters.
The 21-year-old star has charmed the Thai public -- who affectionately call her Nong May -- with her girl-next-door demeanour despite the fame and riches of sporting success.
In 2013 she became the youngest ever world champion. She was briefly ranked number 1 after winning Singapore Open in April but has since slipped to fourth.
A medal favourite in Rio, she will carry the Olympic hopes of a country with few top-class athletes.
She has caught the imagination of Thais as much for her rags to riches back story as on-court heroics.
Her parents are migrants to Bangkok from the country's poor northeast who worked in menial jobs at a badminton centre on the outskirts of the city.
While they worked, Ratchanok played badminton unlocking her talent at the age of six.
In a recent interview with AFP in Bangkok she said she was "100 percent confident" of bringing home a medal from the Rio Olympics.

US Open Grand Prix Badminton:Ajay Jayaram entered the quarter-finals of the US Open Grand Prix badminton tournament by beating Pedro Martins of Portugal 21-11, 21-15

El Monte: Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram and Anand Pawar set up up all in Indian quarter final in the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton event here.

Other Indians who made the quarterfinals were the men's doubles pairing of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, and women's doubles duo of S Poorvisha Ram and Meghana Jakkampudi.

Pawar defeated compatriot Pratul Joshi 21-10, 21-13 while Jayaram outplayed Pedro Martins of Portugal 21-11, 21-15.

In the men's doubles, second seeds Attri and Reddy dug deep to beat Japan's Kenya Mitsuhashi and Yuta Watanabe 23-21, 21-13 in a match lasting 39 minutes.

The Indians now face another Japanese combine of Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.

The women's doubles pairing of Poorvisha and Meghana advanced to the last eight with a 21-16, 21-6 win over America 's Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were seeded one for the women's doubles but they did not take part in the competition due to latter's health.

Saina Nehwal won her second Australian Open Superseries after defeating China's Sun Yu 11-21, 21-14, 21-19 in a tough final

New Delhi: Rio-bound Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was honoured by Hyundai Motor India Ltd by gifting her the 1st anniversary edition of Indian Car of The year - Creta in an event.
The vehicle was gifted to the Olympic bronze medallist in celebration of her winning the Australian Open Championship in Sydney last month.
"It is an honor and wonderful experience for me and I would like to thank Hyundai for honoring me with the 1st Anniversary Edition of Creta. It's motivation for every athlete to receive the recognition for his/her hard-work and achievements," Saina said.
"I am quite confident and will give my best efforts in upcoming tournaments to bring pride to my nation and fellow countrymen."
The 26-year-old is amongst the most decorated athletes in the country having won Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padam Shri and Padam Bhushan.

Ajay Jayaram, B Sai Praneeth Advance in US Grand Prix Badminton Tournament

Indian shuttlers had another good day at the US Open with six of them advancing to the singles pre-quarterfinals of then USD 120,000 Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in El Monte.

In men's singles, sixth seed B Sai Praneeth, who clinched the Canada Open Grand Prix last week at Calgary, defeated Canada's B R Sankeerth 21-15 21-7 to set up a clash with Japan's Kazumasa Sakai, who ended the campaign of India's RMV Gurusaidutt 21-17 21-12 in another match.

Fifth seed H S Prannoy brushed aside Ireland's Joshua Magee 21-9 21-8 in a lop-sided contest and will take on Canada Open finalist Korea's Lee Hyun Il.

Young Pratul Joshi disposed off Czech Republic's Milan Ludik 21-18 21-13 and will fight it out against fellow Indian Anand Pawar who defeated Austria's David Obernosterer 21-12 21-9 in another match.

Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram, who had hurt his shoulder at Calgary last week, also prevailed over Estonia's Raul Must 21-14 21-9 and will take on Pedro Martins of Portugal next.

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In women's singles, Tanvi Lad ended the run of Guatemala's Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor 21-6 21-9 to set up a clash with USA's Beiwen Zhang, seeded fifth.

Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, however, had to swallow a bitter pill after her gallant fight ended with a narrow 19-21 21-15 18-21 loss to Ayumi Mine of Japan.

Among others, Rio-bound Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on the Japanese combo of Kenya Mitsuhashi and Yuta Watanabe, while top seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa gave a walkover in women's doubles after the latter was laid low by a bout of viral fever.

Another women's doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and S Poorvisha Ram will play against American combo of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra and his men's doubles partner Akshay Dewalkar and mixed doubles pair of Pranaav and N Sikki Reddy also withdrew from the event

Canada Open Grand Prix: B Sai Praneeth clinched the men's singles title at the Canada Open, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy doubled later on won the men's doubles crown

Calgary: It was double bonanza for India at the Canada Open as B Sai Praneeth and Rio-bound men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy clinched twin crowns after winning their respective title clash at the $55000 Grand Prix badminton tournament in Calgary.

The 23-year-old B Sai Praneeth, seeded fourth, dished out a dominating game to defeat Korea's Lee Hyun Il 21-12 21-10 in the men's singles final that lasted less than half an hour on Sunday at the Markin MacPhail Centre.

Top seed Manu and Sumeeth Reddy, who became the first Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for the Rio Olympics, received a big boost when they defeated local combo of Adrian Liu and Toby Ng 21-8 21-14 in a lop-sided final in Calgary.

Plagued by injuries and indifferent form, Praneeth has been making early exits from tournaments for quite a few years now. Of course, he had occasional burst of brilliance from time to time like when he stunned 2003 All England Champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia at Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold tournament in June, 2013 or ruining the farewell party of Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat, a former World and Olympic champion, in the first round of Djarum Indonesia Open in 2013.

In fact, at the All England Championships this year, Praneeth had defeated two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the first round. However, despite all these sparks of excellence, a title always eluded him.

But on Sunday, all that changed as the Andhra Pradesh lad stood at the podium with his maiden Grand Prix crown at his hands.

World No.37 Praneeth hardly broke any sweat against Lee, leading all throughout right from the start to end in both the games. The third seeded Korean couldn't put up any fight against the Indian, who jumped to a 10-2 lead in the opening game and then kept moving ahead to pocket the game comfortably.

In the second game, Praneeth surged to a 8-0 lead and then kept moving ahead to slam the door on the Korean.

On Saturday, Lee had defeated top seed Ajay Jayaram of India 21-9 21-8 in the semifinals, while Praneeth had eked out a difficult 22-20 19-21 21-12 win over France's Brice Leverdez.

World No. 23 Manu and Sumeeth, who had beaten Indonesia's Andrei Adistia and Canada's Dong Adam (Xingyu) 21-15 21-19 on Saturday, also didn't face much challenge from Adrian and Toby.

The Indian duo broke off after 3-3 early on in the first game and didn't look back, while in the second game, the local combo tried to put up a better show but they couldn't break the resolve of the Indians, who kept their distance to cross the line comfortably.

Ajay Jayaram, B Sai Praneeth Reach Canada Open Semis

Calgary: Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semifinals of the $55,000 Canada Open Grand Prix  badminton tournament after notching up contrasting victories in the men's singles competition in Calgary.

Ajay Jayaram defeated fellow Indian Harsheel Dani 21-18 19-21 21-8 in a hard-fought that lasted 47 minutes.

The two-time Dutch Open winner, Jayaram will face Korea's Lee Hyun Il, seeded third, in the semifinals.

Fourth seed Praneeth too made it to the final four after brushing aside eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia 21-14 21-16 in just 33 minutes to set up a clash against seventh seeded Frenchman Brice Leverdez, who had ended the campaign of second seed H S Prannoy of India.

Prannoy played out of skin before going down fighting 22-20 21-23 18-21 to Leverdez.

In women's singles, it was curtains for Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and Tanvi Lad.

While Ruthvika suffered a 16-21 12-21 loss to fourth seed Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria, Tanvi fought hard before going down 16-21 21-15 10-21 to third seed Iris Wang of USA.

Among other Indians in fray, top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who have qualified for Rio Olympics, were given a walkover by Canada's Ted (Chin Tai) Chen and Chinese Taipei's Liao Chao Hsiang in the men's doubles event.

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The Indian duo will play Indonesia's Andrei Adistia and Canada's Dong Adam (Xingyu).

Rio-bound women's doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, seeded top, gave a walkover to Leanne Choo of Australia and Rachel Honderich of Canada.

In another women's doubles match, Jakkampudi Meghana and S Poorvisha Ram suffered a narrow 21-18 16-21 20-22 loss to Hung Yi-Ting and Su Hsiang Ling of Chinese Taipei.

Manu and Ashwini also gave a walkover to fourth seed Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom of Sweden in the mixed doubles competition.

Canada Open: Ajay Jayaram, HS Prannoy Among Indians in Quarters

Top seed Ajay Jayaram brushed aside Austria's David Obernosterer 21-10 21-12 to set up a clash with fellow Indian Harsheel Dani, who defeated another India shuttler Pratul Joshi 21-9 21-18 in a men's singles match.

In another pre-quarterfinal match, second seed H S Prannoy recovered from a second game slump to eke out a hard-fought 21-18 18-21 21-12 win over Canada's BR Sankeerth. He will face seventh seed Brice Leverdez of France next.

Fourth seed B Sai Praneeth, too, reached the quarterfinals after beating Canada's Wenchao Shi 21-19 21-12. He will face eighth seed Raul Must of Estonia, who ended the campaign of RMV Gurusaidutt, beating the Indian 21-12 7-21 21-17 in another match.

In women's singles, 2015 National Champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde edged past Austria's Elisabeth Baldauf 24-22 21-18 to set up a fight with fourth seeded Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria.

Senior Nationals runners-up, Tanvi Lad saw off USA's Maya Chen 21-14 21-15 to set up a meeting with another American Iris Wang, seeded third.

Rio-bound women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on Australia's Leanne Choo and Rachel Honderich of Canada in the quarterfinals after the top seeds were given a bye in the first round.

Top seeded men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on Canada's Ted Chin Tai Chen and Chinese Taipei's Liao Chao Hsiang. The Rio-bound Indian men's pair defeated local combo of Timothy Chiu and Jason Ho-Shue 21-8 21-10 in a pre-quarterfinal match.

Mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated Canadian combo of Jonathan Lai and Michelle Tong 21-14 21-12 and will square up against fourth seeds Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom of Sweden.

Another Indian women's doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and S Poorvisha Ram will face Chinese Taipei's Hung Yi-Ting and Su Hsiang Ling after getting a bye in the opening round.