Commonwealth Games 2022: India's badminton contingent returns home, Sindhu, Shetty receive warm welcome

Serena Williams announces her upcoming retirement from Tennis

US tennis great Serena Williams announced on Tuesday that he countdown has begun to her retirement from the sport.

On Monday, Williams played only her second singles match since she returned to action at Wimbledon in June after a year-long absence from competition, beating Spain's Nuria Parrizas Diaz to reach the second round of the Toronto Open.

Indian athletes, following their scintillating performance at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, have started returning home from Birmingham to warm receptions, with the ubiquitous dhols, garlands and bouquets giving the IGI airport a festive look.

Before Prabhakar's appointment, the Nepal cricket team was succeeded by 52-year-old former Sri Lanka Test wicketkeeper-batter Pubudu Dassanayake. Dassanayake has recently stepped down from his position and took over as the head coach of the Canada men's team.

The notable names dropped from the main squad are batter Shreyas Iyer and left-arm spinner Axar Patel. Seamer Deepak Chahar, who has had a four month lay-off due to hamstring tear and back injury was also among reserves. The other absentee from the squad is pacer Harshal Patel owing to rib injury.

Up against the rampaging Australians, Indians struggled to get their act right in the summit showdown, which turned out to be completely lopsided. Australia scored the first goal of the game in the the first quarter, having started the final on a dominating note.

The 40-year-old paddler, who won a bronze medal in the last edition in Gold Coast, had defeated home country's Paul Drinkhall 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 to reach his second CWG finals.

Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty won gold medal in the final of mens doubles badminton match in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Lakshya Sen won gold medal in the final of mens single at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

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The 40-year-old Sharath has a rich haul of four medals in this edition of the Games, having won the men's team and mixed team gold and a silver in the men's doubles event. He will also be playing in the men's singles gold medal match later in the day.

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So far, Indian athletes have won 55 medals-- 18 golds, 15 silvers and 22 bronze-- at the Commonwealth Games 2022.

The Indian duo, that had won the silver medal in the mixed team event in the 2018 Gold Coast edition, had gone down to Joelle King and Paul Coll in the semifinals.

India has never won a gold in the six editions of CWG. Two silver medals in 2010 and 2014 editions is the best they could achieve since hockey was introduced in the Games in 1998. So, finishing on top of the podium by getting past the mighty Kookaburras would definitely be a tall task for India and they will have to play out of their skin to achieve the elusive feat.

Pranav is the 27th Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu, a list which includes the legendary Viswanathan Anand and teen sensations D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa among others.

An employee at the Haryana secretariat, Bhagwan has been on unpaid leave for the last three years to train Nitu, a two-time World Youth champion. On Sunday, all the sacrifices seemed worth it as Nitu stood on the podium when the gold medal around her neck.

The nine athletes and a manager vanished after completing their events, the Sri Lankan official said, requesting anonymity. Three of them -- judoka Chamila Dilani, her manager Asela de Silva, and wrestler Shanith Chathuranga -- had disappeared last week.

The Indian world boxing champion was off to a great start. Carly competed really well in the first round. But Nikhat took advantage of her strengths and maintained a slight advantage over her opponent, which made all five judges vote in her favour at the end of the first round.

Sable's rise has been meteoric. He was fifth in the Federation Cup in 2017, but won the title in the National Open that year, and he ran sub-9m for the first time. Within a year, he broke the legendary Gopal Saini's 37-year-old national record at the 2018 National Open Championships with a time of 8:29.80.

World champion Kelsey-Lee Barber of Australia stole the gold with a final round throw of 64.43m from compatriot Mackenzie Little (64.27m) who was leading at the end of the penultimate round.

Sandeep Kumar won a bronze medal in the men's 10,000m racewalk event, clocking at 39.4.21m behind gold winner Canada's Even Dunfee and Australia's Declan Tingay (38:42.33). Amit Khatri finished ninth with a season best time of 43:04.97.

Bhavina Patel, who had won a silver at Tokyo Paralympics, prevailed 12-10 11-2 11-9 over Nigeria's Ifechukwude Christiana Ikpeoyi to cap off a superb show at the quadrennial event.

Opting to bat, India posted 191 for five, riding on a solid batting display with Rishabh Pant (44 off 31 balls) emerging as the top-scorer.

The Indian medal haul has been going at a slow but steady pace in the absence of shooting and archery and some unexpected performances in table tennis and badminton got a leg-up with the wrestlers adding three more gold to the three they won on Friday. India are now placed fifth in the table behind Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand.

Subramanium Raman, table tennis head coach, praised the mixed doubles pair of R Sathiyan and Manika Batra, touting them as medal prospects for Paris 2024. They are now ranked number 6 and our aim is to get them to the top 4 before Paris. They have a real chance, said Raman.

Jaismine became India's 30th medallist at the Birmingham 2022, and the first pugilist to officially confirm the colour of her medal. Amit Pangha, Mohammed Hussamuddin, Rohit Tokas, Sagar Ahlawat, Nitu Ghanghas and Nikhat Zareen have also assured medals.

Sable wins Indias first-ever medal (silver) in mens 3000m steeplechase, Priyanka clinches silver in race walk.

India are through to the final of 2022 Commonwealth Games women's T20 final after defeating England by four runs in a thrilling semifinal at Edgbaston on Saturday.

Sharath first paired up with G Sathiyan to beat the Australian pair of Nicholas Lum and Finn Luu 3-2 (11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 12-14, 11-7) in a thrilling men's doubles semifinal clash.

Putting aside the mental and physical struggles that pegged her back, an intimidating Vinesh Phogat pounced on her rivals to put herself in line for a hat-trick of CWG gold medals while the formidable Ravi Dahiya too cruised into the final on Saturday.

Panghal, who is vying to win the yellow metal after his silver in the last edition, came from behind to beat an aggressive Patrick Chinyemba of Zambia with a 5-0 unanimous decision win. Nitu, on the other hand, prevailed over Canada's Priyanka Dhillon as she notched a RSC (Referee Stops Contest) win in the minimum weight category.