Ace Indian shuttler and world no 2 Saina Nehwal will receive the India's highest sports award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.

The award's panel chaired by the country's renowned athlete P. T. Usha met today to finalize the winners of 2020's national sports awards.

A sports ministry representative stated that the Arjuna Awards will be announced in next couple of days.

Saina has been in superb form and recently bagged three back-to-back tournaments, which comprised two Super Series titles.

India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal, who created history by bagging three titles consecutively and is on the third place in the world ranking, stated that she was positive of becoming the world number one player.

Saina also said that she would work even harder to be successful in the World Championship, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

The 20-year-old player said, "When I can become world number 3, I can also become world number 1."

Bollywood has stood with Saina Nehwal and the stars have cheered up the player to win the Indonesian Open Super Series. Some of the actors have used the micro-blogging site Twitter to cheer Saina. They have tweeted praise Saina to complete an amazing hat-trick of badminton titles. This was her third successive title. Last week she has won Indian Open Grand Prix and Singapore Open.

Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal has created history today as she beat Japan's Sayaka Sato 21-19 13-21 21-11 to bag the Indonesian Open Super series title.

This is Saina's third straight triumph during the last three weeks. She was the defending champion at this event that she won in 2009 as well.

Recently, Nehwal jumped to her career best ranking of World No 3, came into this event because of straight wins in the India Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super series title.

India's badminton star Saina Nehwal brings some good news for herself and for the country too. The badminton player has secured a ranking spot at number five in the world. This is so far the best ranking that Nehwal has ever got in her career.

She secured this ranking after her scintillating performance in the recently concluded All England Badminton Championships. In the list of top 10 badminton players in the world, six are from China.

Indian women have failed to continue their brilliant show at the Uber Cup as Japan has thrashed India by 4-1 in the second round of the Uber Cup (Asia Zone) badminton tournament at the Nakornratchasima in Thailand on Tuesday.

Saina Nehwal was the only Indian woman to win her match while all others lost their matches. Saina, the World no. 7, was declared winner in the match against Goto when Goto decided to withdraw from the match due to injury. Saina was leading the match 1-0 at that moment.

Brokered by Total Sports Asia (TSA), the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has finally roped in Rs. 75 million for 3 years from Premier Brands. The amount that the BAI has secured from the contract would accrue to the badminton players.

The sponsorship amounts would be administered by the former players. VK Verma, BAI's president has stated that the amount would directly be going to the players and none of the amount will be used by the body for its administrative costs. With the aim of setting the highest transparency in sports administration they are coming up with a new model of financial governance.

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and Leander Paes have stormed into the next round of Australian Open after winning their respective matches in the women's and men's doubles event respectively at the Melbourne Park on Friday.

The 10th seeded duo of Sania and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain has defeated Swiss-Italian duo Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin in straight sets by 7-6(3) 6-3 in the second round to move into the pre-quarterfinal of the women's doubles event.

The campaign of the Indian pair of Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj has came to a halt in the men's doubles event of the Australian Open as they have lost their second round match at the Melbourne Park on Friday.

Somdev-Prakash duo has went down to Sweden-Australian pair of Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley in straight set 1-6 3-6 in the second round of the men's doubles event. The unseeded Indian duo looked helpless against the 13th seeded pair of Simon and Paul.

Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal has stormed into the quarterfinals of the women's singles event of the Malaysia Open Super Sereis after defeating Japanese Ai Goto at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Thursday.

The seventh seeded Saina dumped World no. 26 Goto in straight sets 21-19 21-12 in just 29 minutes in the second round. The first went neck-to-neck but Saina strengthened her grip in the second set to race away with the match.

Lucknow, Dec 14 : A host of international stars will compete in the Jaypee Cup Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton, beginning here Tuesday.

Top Indian stars, including Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand, will play in the six-day event, jointly organised by the UP Badminton Association and the state government.

Three times World Champion and former Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia will be participating as a 'guest player', and he will play show matches on Dec 19 and 20.

In all 145 shuttlers, including 35 foreigners, will be vying for top honours in the $50,000 event.

Hyderabad Dec 12 - Saina Nehwal, India's top badminton player and one of the nation's brightest hopes for an Olympic medal, signed a three-year contract with Olympic Gold Quest, a 'Not for Profit' sports foundation until the 2012 London Olympics.

Saina's career has witnessed a meteoric rise in recent years. She became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series event when she triumphed at the Indonesian Open in Jakarta earlier this year.

India's Saina Nehwal has reached semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters Finals badminton. Saina has outpaced Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, by 21-13, 21-19.

India's mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta also added some cheer by reaching semi-finals after beating Thailand's Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul by 21-12,
21-8.

The world no. 8 ranker Saina Nehwal said, "I always believed that it will go down to the final match of the preliminary rounds. There is some draft in the stadium and it is a distraction, hence I could not control some of my shots."

Johor Bahru, Dec 5 : India's Valiyaveetil Diju and Jwala Gutta scored a sensational 21-19, 21-11 win over Poland's Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk to storm into the mixed doubles final of the World Super Series Masters Finals badminton at the Johor Bahru City Stadium here Saturday.

However, top-seeded Indian Saina Nehwal went down 18-21, 18-21 to Juliane Schenk of Germany in the women's singles semifinals.

It was a strong comeback from world No 7. Jwala and Diju who had lost their opening Group match.

Johor Bahru, Dec 4 : India's Saina Nehwal scored an emphatic 21-13, 21-19 victory over Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk to reach the semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters Finals badminton here Friday.

There was more cheer for India as mixed doubles pair of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta also reached the semi-finals after defeating Thailand's Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul
21-12, 21-8.

Saina registered her second successive victory in Group A after losing to Malaysian Wong Mew Choo in the first match.

Chennai, Nov 21 : The Indian Squash Academy courts here proved to be a happy hunting ground for 19-year old Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu as he claimed his second PSA title in as many months defeating James Snell of England 11-6, 13-11, 11-7 in the final of the Indian Challenger Series here Saturday.

A couple of months back, Sandhu had won the Challengers Series-3 event at the same venue and today's victory underlined his potential.

In the women's final, Fiona Moverley of England beat Malaysia's Siti Munirah Jusoh 10-12, 12-10, 11-4, 14-12 in 45 minutes to annex her second title in the past fortnight.

Chennai, Nov 19 : Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu kept Indian hopes alive by advancing to semi-finals in the PSA Challenger Series-5 squash tournament here Thursday even as his compatriots fell by the way side.

Sandhu was kept on court for 69 minutes by junior player Abhishek Pradhan before he pulled through in five games.

In the WISPA Challenger series event being run concurrently, India's Anaka Alankamony and Anwesha Reddy crashed out and with their exit, the home challenge ended.

The results (Quarter-finals):

Indian ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has advanced into the quarterfinals of women's singles event of the French Super Series after ousting Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in straight sets in the second round.

The eighth seeded Saina defeated Pui 21-15 21-14 to book her berth in the last eight. Saina will now lock horns with the top seeded Wang Lin of China in the quarterfinal. Wang outplayed Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva 21-2 21-8 in her second round match.

Dehradun, Oct 26 : About 70 specially-abled badminton players are participating in a special three-day badminton tournament in Dehradun.

Concluding on Tuesday, the tournament was first of its kind organised by the state.

The competition for players with hearing disability is organised with the aim to give a platform to those who want to make big despite their shortcoming.

Two English teams have walked out of the Subroto Cup citing a supposed security threat. Just recently, during the World Badminton Championships in Hyderabad, the England team withdrew due to concerns but later apologised via email to the Badminton Association of India.

An email has been sent again, though from a different source. Reason: An under-17 team and an under-14 football team from England have withdrawn.