Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa quashed reports claiming the amount of money received by the players for the Paris Olympics. The said report stated that Ashwini Ponnappa and her doubles partner Tanisha Crasto received INR 1.5 crore each from SAI's Mission Olympic Cell allocation.
India's senior shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa has thrown her weight behind Lakshya Sen and other badminton players of the contingent following Prakash Padukone's statement. Padukone had come down heavily on the players for showing accountability rather than holding federation or government responsible.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto lost their first match of the group-stage round to South Korea's Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong. The loss came in straight games 21-18, 21-10.
Double Olympic medallist Sindhu outplayed World No 23 Yvonne Li 21-10, 21-13 in 31 minutes.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy suffered their second successive loss in the event, going down fighting 19-21 20-22 to Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva
Srikanth beat France's Toma Junior Popov 21-14, 21-16 in 42 minutes in his opening match of group B.
The 2nd-seed Indian pair squandered an opening game advantage to lose 21-15, 19-21, 14-21 to top seeds Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn of Denmark.
They will now face Thai top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Ashwini and Sikki had reached the second round on Wednesday after a 21-9, 17-21, 21-19 win over Denmark's Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn.
In the men's singles, Sameer Verma too suffered a second successive loss to third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, going down 22-20 21-10 in the second round.
The world number 31 Indian needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke 21-12, 21-9; Satwik and Ponnappa had a hard fought 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 win over the German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich.
Satwiksairaj and Ashwini defeated their Indonesian opponent 21-11, 27-29, 21-16 in the opening round contest which lasted one hour and 12 minutes.
Indian shuttlers Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy have finally got some time to pause and reflect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saurabh Verma defeated Iskandar Zulkarnain in the semi-finals while women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy defeated Hong Kong's Fan Ka Yan and Wu Yi Ting.
Eighth-seeded India's hopes will now rest on their next match when they take on the mighty China Wednesday.
Indian badminton star Ashwini Ponnappa said that PBL is a great experience and helps the players to learn and get good match practice against top class players around the world.
Ashwini had won a World Championship bronze in 2011 and a gold and silver at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games respectively with her earlier partner Jwala Gutta.
In the women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy's spirited campaign came to an end.
Third seed Sindhu bounced back after losing a close first game to record a 21-23, 21-13, 21-18 win in her second round women's singles match.
World No 25 Satwiksairaj and Ashwini, who had lost twice to the English combination in the past, executed their plan well to notch up a 21-13, 20-22, 21-17 win.
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