Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Sindhu beats Marin to lift India Open badminton title

India's PV Sindhu defeated top seed Carolina Marin of Spain in straight games to win the final match of the India Open badminton tournament in New Delhi on Sunday.

Third seed Sindhu beat the Spaniard 21-19, 21-16 in a match that lasted 46 minutes at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.


The 21-year-old Olympic silver medallist took an early lead in the match and continued to dominate the game throughout in front of a cheering home crowd.

Sindhu took a crucial 5-1 lead in the first game but a fight back by Marin left the score 11-9 at the mid break.

Marin came back strongly after the change of ends to take a one-point lead 18-17 before Sindhu rallied to seal the game at 21-19.

The lanky Indian raced to a 4-0 lead in the second game and maintained a five-point lead at 15-10. She locked the game at 21-16 to win the $325,000 tournament.

"It was a very intense first game and it was crucial that I won it," Sindhu said.

"It was a close encounter and tied at 19-19, either of us could have won it from there. We were not in the mood to give it away and played long rallies and eventually I came out on top."

The maiden title win helped the Indian shuttler narrow down her head-to-head record against the Olympian Spaniard to 4-5.

Sindhu had last defeated Marin in the BWF Super Series in Dubai last year.

She won her semi-final clash against second-seeded Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea on Saturday.

In the men's singles final, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark clinched the title beating Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen in straight games.

The third seed took 36 minutes to floor Chou 21-13, 21-10 to claim his maiden India Open title.

More For You

Instagram removes DM encryption from today: What users should do to stay safe

Meta can’t read WhatsApp messages, but it can see who you talk to, when, and how often and use that data for ads and recommendations

iStock

Instagram removes DM encryption from today: What users should do to stay safe

Highlights

  • Instagram switches off end-to-end encryption just before federal deepfake law enforcement begins.
  • Meta can now read private messages it previously could not access.
  • Privacy experts warn against storing downloaded chats in Google Drive or iCloud.
Instagram is removing a privacy feature from May 8 that previously stopped the company from accessing the content of users’ direct messages.
The change comes just days before a new US federal law requires platforms to scan and remove harmful content.
The change affects users who turned on Instagram's end-to-end encryption option for direct messages.
Most Instagram users never switched on this feature, according to digital privacy expert Harry Maugans. For the small number who did, the protection ends on May 8.

End-to-end encryption works like a sealed envelope. The platform can see who sent a message and who received it, but cannot open it to read what is inside.

When Instagram removes this feature, it effectively removes the privacy layer that kept messages hidden. As a result, Meta would be able to access the content of those messages.

Keep ReadingShow less