Here at the ESPN daily blog, we bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports, from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
March has plenty of sporting action taking place - which you can find listed out in ESPN India's sporting calendar.
Srikanth reaches Swiss Open semifinal
There will be at least one Indian on semifinal Saturday in Basel as Kidambi Srikanth brushed past Lee Chia Hao 21-10, 21-14 in just 35 minutes.
Srikanth, who had struggled to put together back-to-back wins on the BWF Tour for months now, looked in great touch against the Chinese Taipei player who had beaten Lakshya Sen yesterday.
He raced to a 8-1 lead to start the match, getting his lines right and finding winners with an attacking approach. He had a 11-5 lead at the interval and swelled that to 16-8 making minimal errors. Lee had no answer to the most of the shots and an aggressive Srikanth closed out the game with ease.
The second game was much closer, both players level at 7-7 and Lee taking a point lead before Srikanth pulled ahead for an 11-8 lead at the interval. Lee stayed close till at 14-11 before Srikanth upped his gears to close out match winning 6 straight points.
Srikanth, who took down top seed Lee Zii Jia in the second round, will play Lin Chun-Yi, who beat third seed Loh Kean Yew in the first round, for a place in the final. This will be their first meeting.
Badminton: India's draws for the Thomas and Uber Cup are out... and their groups are not easy
Both the Indian men's and women's team were placed in tricky groups in the Thomas and Uber Cup draws announced today.
Thomas Cup defending champions India are with heavyweights Indonesia, who they beat in the historic 2022 final, while the reigning Badminton Asia Team Championship winning women are clubbed with China in the Uber Cup. Both Indonesia and China are the most successful teams in the respective competitions.
In Thomas Cup, apart from record 14-time winners Indonesia, India have Thailand and England in Group C. While India obviously have the firepower to beat all of them in the group stage, it will be an early test for the holders, especially in men's singles which have been erratic this season.
In Uber Cup, apart from 15-time winners China, India have Canada and Singapore in Group A. The other two countries could be relatively easier opponents for PV Sindhu and Co, if the team that lifted an unexpected BATC title in February shows up. China though, unlike BATC, will likely field a full-strength squad at home.
The tournament will be held from April 27 to May 5 in Chengdu, China.
Indian women have reached the semifinals of the Uber Cup thrice in 1957, 2014 and 2016 while the 2022 gold was the men's team's first medal.
Badminton update: Treesa-Gayatri out in Swiss Open QF
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand's Swiss Open Super 300 campaign came to a rather tame end in the quarterfinals, denting a blow to their Paris Olympics qualifying chances as well. The eighth seeds lost to the unseeded Australian pair of Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 21-14, 21-15.
From the beginning, the Indians were not able to build any sort of rhythm against their opponents, ranked 33 in the world, and had to play catch up the entire match. The Austrlaians were able to land in good winners and the Indians committed errors and left gaps in their defence, which the Australian's exploited with relative ease.
Their next tournament is next week's Madrid Masters, also a Super 300, where will look for a deep run to rack up some much-needed points. Treesa and Gayatri currently share the 14th place in the Olympic Games qualification ranking.
Sathiyan wins first WTT Feeder title
G. Sathiyan has become the first Indian to win a men's singles trophy at a WTT Feeder Series event in Beirut, Lebanon. He defeated compatriot Manav Thakkar 3-1 (6-11 11-7 11-7 11-4).
Thakkar was part of three finals, but ended up as the runner up in all of them. Diya Chitale and Manush Shah defeated Manav and Archana Kamath 3-1 (11-6 10-12 11-6 11-6) to win the mixed doubles title.
In men's doubles final, Thakkar and Manush Utpal Shah lost (11-5, 7-11 11-13 12-14) against Andy Pereira and Jorge Campos, who are the first pair from Cuba to strike WTT title success.
Seeded 11th, Sathiyan took down fifth seed Harmeet Desai (15-13 6-11 11-8 13-11) and top seed Chuang Chih-Yuan (11-8 11-13 11-8 11-9) along the way. In the the final as he overcame an early setback to see off ninth seed Thakkar in four games.
The result marks Sathiyan's first men's singles success at a WTT event, and his first singles title at an international ranking event since ITTF Czech International Open 2021.
FIFA WC Qualifiers: Insipid India fail to beat under-strength Afghanistan
Well, it was another uninspired performance from India. It's now been 532 minutes since India last scored a goal in international football. That's nearly nine hours of goalless football spread across four months. What's made it feel even longer still is that you got the sense India could have played for a further 532 minutes across those five (and a bit) matches, and they would not have come close to changing that stat line.
Read the full article here.
Thrilling PVL final highlights league's (and volleyball's) unlimited potential
In its third season, the Prime Volleyball League (PVL) has its third champions. Calicut Heroes finished top of the league phase. Then they finished top of the Super 5s. Then they were just superior to the Delhi Toofans in the final in Chennai on Thursday night. They have their first trophy, and they left no doubts as to who the best team was in the tournament.
But the bigger story is how the league, in its infancy, is showing that it has the people to put that work in to reach the world level, one spike at a time.
You can read the story here.
What's on today?
FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: More reaction to India's dismal draw against Afghanistan.
Swiss Open badminton: Kidambi Srikanth, Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat will be in action in men's singles quarterfinals. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will also play their women's doubles quarterfinal match today.
What happened yesterday?
FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: India and Afghanistan play out a goalless draw.
Swiss Open badminton: Sindhu, Ash-Tan, Lakshya lose; George, Srikanth, Rajawat advance
PVL: Calicut Heroes are crowned champions
Paris Olympics: Sharath Kamal to be India's flag bearer, Mary Kom named chef de mission
You can find all the details on what happened yesterday, here.