PV Sindhu's silver at the Rio Olympics 2016 is a new high for Indian badminton despite losing to Carolina Marin 19-21,21-12,21-15

PV Sindhu's silver at the Rio Olympics 2016 is a new high for Indian badminton. The 21-year-old Hyderabad girl went down against Spain's Carolina Marin 19-21, 21-12, 21-15 in a contest that lasted an hour and 23 minutes. 

It was a hard fought encounter in the badminton women's singles final at the Rio Olympic badminton final on Friday as both Sindhu and Marin fought tooth and nail for the glory. 

Eventually, Spain's Carolina Marin triumphed 19-21, 21-12, 21-15 over India's PV Sindhu after 1 hour and 23 minutes on the court. For PV Sindhu, it was a matter of what could have been. But a first-ever appearance in the final of a badminton event at the Olympics has seen the Hyderabad-born athlete being celebrated on social media by users from India.

 Sindhu 'an inspiration', tweets Bindra   Sindhu was gracious in defeat. She embraced Marin after a well-contested final that the Spaniard deserved to win. "Never thought I would make it this far. Overall I am on cloud nine at the moment, this feels amazing," said Sindhu. 

Sindhu was in great form till she met world champion Carolina Marin in Rio on Friday. In her maiden Olympics, Sindhu staged a marvelous comeback to win the first game 21-19. Sindhu's intensity and her hunger to win against a high quality rival was very clear.

India's PV Sindhu marched into the semifinals of the women's singles badminton event at the 2016 Rio Olympics with a stunning 22-20, 21-19 win over World No.2 Wang Yihan of China.

Saina Nehwal crashes out of Rio Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO: In one of the biggest upsets for the Indian Olympic contingent, medal hope Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Rio Games after suffering an upset straight-game loss against lower-ranked Maria Ulitina of Ukraine in her second Group G match on Sunday.
The London Olympics bronze medallist and World No. 5 who had inflammation on her right knee, lost 18-21, 19-21 to World No. 61 Maria in a match that lasted 39 minutes at the pavillion 4 Riocentre.
The Indian star, a former world no. 1, had won the opening match against Brazil's Vicente Lohaynny on August 11.
Maria, who had beaten Vicente in the opening match, reached the knockout stage from Group G at the expense of Saina and the Brazilian girl.
Saina looked totally rusty as she squandered an initial 6-1 lead to allow Maria level the scores at 8-8 with the Indian burying the shuttle in the net.
The Ukraine player posed a lot of questions as Saina missed a few shots in the forecourt and back. The Indian, however, managed to enter the short break 11-9 in front with a drop which Maria could not return from the forecourt.
Maria caught up again at 13-13 when Saina hit long. She in fact took a slender lead at 16-15 and 17-16 as Saina struggled with her movements.
With Saina continuing to be sluggish, Maria reached 19-17 and then reached game point with a cross court round-the-head smash which caught Saina napping., The Indian then hit wide to allow Maria earns the bragging rights after clinching the opening game.
In the second game, Maria used her height to good use as she played some sharp and stiff smashes and half smashes which Saina failed to negotiate. The Indian managed to stay ahead with a slender 11-10 lead at the break.
But Maria dominated the pace of the rallies even as Saina seemed restricted in her movement as the Ukraine player led 14-13.
The script didn't change much after that as Maria managed to reach match point with a cross court smash and then entered the knock-out pre-quarter final round with a lucky net chord

Kidambi Srikanth held his nerve as he fought off a tough challenge against Mexico's Lino Munoz to win in straight games in the 2016 Rio Olympics

Kidambi Srikanth overcame some stiff resistance in the second game from lower ranked Mexican rival Lino Munoz before winning his group H clash in straight games in men's badminton singles at the Olympic Games.

Srikanth, the only Indian male shuttler in fray in singles, got past world No 85 Munoz 21-11 21-17 in 41 minutes to give a perfect ending to the sixth day of competitions.

Earlier, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu had also won their opening group matches in women's singles while the combinations of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa (women's doubles) and Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy (men's doubles) tasted defeats in their respective group openers.

If Srikanth, who had defeated badminton super star Lin Dan to win the Chinese Open two years ago, had expected an easier outing than he encountered, it was belied by the Mexican's will to fight with good backing from the crowd, especially in the second game.

After taking the opening game comfortably, the cushion of a 16-9 lead proving handy, Srikanth was given a tough fight in the second as he had to rally from behind on quite a few occasions before using his better court craft and experience to see him through.

Srikanth led 6-2 but the Mexican drew level and then led 8-6 before the Indian fought back to restore parity. Srikanth was 11-9 ahead at the break but a series of poor returns of serve saw the Indian down 11-12.

Things were neck to neck from this point till 13-all before Munoz again went up to 16-13 with the help of some weak mid-court clears by the Indian that were "killed" without much ado by the Mexican.

Srikanth again caught up at 16, fell behind 16-17 through another weak mid-court clear, but finally brought his game back on track to level the scores at 17 with a superb smash to the forehand side of his rival.

From then on the superiority of the Indian shuttler came to the fore as he came up with successive cross court and down the line smashes to lead 19-17 which were followed by a netted shot by his rival to give Srikanth four match points.

The last point was won by the Indian with a bodyline smash followed by a push to the back court that caught the Mexican in no-man's land.

After two days' rest Srikanth will be up against Sweden's Henri Hurskainen, the world no 50 on August 14 in his second and last Group H clash.

Earlier in the day, London Games bronze winner Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World No 73 Brazilian Vicente Lohaynny 21-17 21-17 in a women's singles match that lasted 39 minutes, while two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu spanked World No. 64 Laura Sarosi of Hungary 21-8 21-9 in 27 minutes.

Saina will face World No. 61 Maria Ulitina of Ukraine in a Group G match on August 14 and ninth seed Sindhu will clash with Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Li Michelle of Canada in Group M on the same day to complete the preliminary group engagements.

Jwala and Ashwini, however, lost their women's doubles league opener after going down 15-21 10-21 to the World No.1 Japanese pair of Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsumoto. Men's doubles duo of Manu and Sumeeth lost 18-21 13-21 to World No 2 Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

Rio Olympics: Saina Nehwal Seeded Fifth, Kidambi Srikanth Ninth

New Delhi: Star badminton player Saina Nehwal has been seeded fifth while her compatriot P V Sindhu is seeded ninth in the women's singles at the upcoming Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro. 

Kidambi Srikanth, meanwhile, has received a ninth seeding in the men's draw. Saina is world no. 5 and Sindhu is ranked tenth in women's singles, while Srikanth's ranking is 11th in the world in men's singles. 

The seedings are based on Thursday (July 21, 2016) World Rankings for the final confirmed Olympic qualifiers, and will be used for the draw on July 26. Each singles category has 13 seeds. Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and Spain's Carolina Marin are the top seeds in men's and women's singles, respectively. Lee, runner-up at the last two Olympics and winner of two BWF World Superseries titles this season, is followed in the seedings by two-time World champion Chen Long (2; China) and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan (3; China). In women's singles, two-time World champion Marin heads a competitive field ahead of two Chinese -- Wang Yihan (2) and defending Olympic champion Li Xuerui (3).

 Thailand's in-form Ratchanok Intanon (4), winner of three World Superseries titles this year, is also seeded ahead of the London Olympic bronze medallist Saina. There are only four seeds in each of the three doubles categories and none of the Indian pairs figure in the seeding list. The men's singles draw will consist of 41 players in 13 groups, while 40 competitors will be divided into 13 groups in women's singles. 

Each group will have one seed. The draw in doubles will have four groups of four pairs. Each group will include a seeded pair.