A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday.
Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal were retained by their respective franchises at the players auction of the Premier Badminton League in Hyderabad, on Monday.
Each retained player gets a 25 per cent hike in his/her salary from last year, while players who are bought by using the 'Right-To-Match' card only get a 10 per cent increase from the last year's selling price.
Defending champions Chennai Smashers retained Olympic silver medallist Sindhu for Rs 48.75 lakhs. The 22-year-old, who recently won a silver at the World Championship at Glasgow and clinched the Korea Super Series, had fetched Rs 39 lakhs during the last auction.
Saina, who had returned with a bronze medal from Glasgow, was retained for Rs 41,25,000. She was retained by Awadhe Warriors for the base price of Rs 33 lakhs last season.
Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia, will also play for his old team Awadhe Warriors after they used the 'Right To Match' card. He was bought for Rs 56,10,000.
Among others, doubles players -- India's Satwik Sairaj, Korea's Lee Young Dae and Russia's Vladimir Ivanov -- were all retained by their old teams and were not part of the auction.
According to the rules, old teams can retain one player and the franchise can use one right to match, while new teams can use one right to match for players who are making their debut in PBL.
There will be 11 players in each franchise with a maximum of five foreign players and minimum of three women players and each team needs to spend minimum of Rs. 2.12 crore.
The players auction started after more than two hours delay and the first player to go under the hammer was the women's world no. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, one of the nine icon players, who was bought by Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 52 lakhs.
Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin from Spain was bought by Hyderabad Hunters, the team she played last season, for a base price of Rs 50 lakhs.
Newly crowned world champion and World No. 1 Denmark's Viktor Axelsen was bought by his old team Bengaluru Blasters for Rs 50 lakhs, while world number 2 Son Wan Ho and World number 5 Sung Ji Hyun went to Delhi Acers for Rs 50 lakh each.
Chinese Taipei's Tzu Wei Wang, who is ranked 10th in the world in men's singles, will be the icon player for North Eastern Warriors after he was bought by them for Rs 52 lakhs.
Olympics silver medallist in doubles, Christinna Pedersen became the most expensive doubles player after she was picked up by Awadhe Warriors for Rs 42 lakh.
Pedersen's partner Kamilla Rytter Juhl went to Ahmedabad Smash Masters for Rs 35 lakhs.
Doubles specialists Prajakta Sawant and Chirag Shetty were bought by North Eastern Warriors for Rs 7 lakhs and 5 lakhs respectively, India's top doubles shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa went to Delhi Acers for Rs 20 lacs, while Manu Attri was picked by Bengaluru Blasters for Rs 17 lakh.
India's top mixed doubles player, Pranaav Jerry Chopra was bought by Delhi Acers for Rs 18 lacs, while young doubles player Arathi Sara Sunil will make her PBL debut for Delhi Acers, who bought her for Rs 3 lakhs.
India's national champion Joshna Chinappa defeated compatriot and doubles partner Dipika Pallikal Karthik in the first round of the US Open Squash Championship, in Philadelphia.
13th seed Chinappa won 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 in 45 minutes on Sunday for her second consecutive entry into the second round of the championship.
A month ago the two Indians met at the China Open, with Chinappa winning there too but over five games.
She takes on fifth seeded Nouran Gohar of Egypt in the next round.
The mixed pair of Jemson Ningthoujam and Ankita Bhakat clinched the recurve team gold medal as India returned with three medals from the World Archery Youth Championship in Rosario, Argentina, on Sunday.
This is India's first world title at the youth championships since Deepika Kumari's victories in 2009 and 2011. India also bagged one silver and one bronze in a promising show by the youngsters.
Ningthoujam and Bhakat, seeded ninth, had upset top-seed Korea in the quarterfinals, before beating their Russian opponents 6-2 in the final.
"I was initially feeling a little shaky but I shot very well and we won the gold. Now I'm happy," said Bhakat.
"Our coach tried to encourage us both; he was shouting 'we have to win', 'we have to win', 'we have to win'," Ningthoujam said.
"The hard work has paid off and now we'll hear our national anthem."
Ningthoujam also returned with a second medal when he alongwith Shukmani Gajanan Babrekar and Atul Verma lost to a heavily-favoured Korean squad in the final of men's team event to settle for silver.
India also took a bronze medal in the compound cadet women's event when Khushbu Dhayal, Sanchita Tiwari and Divya Dhawal defeated their opponents from Great Britan 212-206 in the play-off.
The mixed team gold is India's fourth World Archery Champion title across all disciplines.
Deepika had won the recurve cadet title in 2009 and recurve junior crown in 2011; Palton Hansda, in 2006, was the first Indian archer to be crowned world champion, when she took gold in the compound junior women's event.
Garcia pulls out of Tianjin Open with injury, Sharapova gets wildcard
Top-seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia has withdrawn from the Tianjin Open with an injury, organisers announced on Monday.
Garcia, who has been nursing a right thigh problem, beat Romanian Simona Halep in Sunday's China Open final in Beijing to move into the eighth and final place in the WTA Finals standings ahead of Briton Johanna Konta.
It was not immediately clear if Garcia's withdrawal was due to the injury she had been carrying in Beijing.
"Unfortunately @CaroGarcia has had to withdraw from the #tianjinopen due to injury," organisers said on Twitter.
Garcia's China Open triumph gave her a second consecutive title after winning the Wuhan Open crown last month and the 23-year-old is now primed for a first singles appearance at the season-ending tournament in Singapore starting on Oct 22.
As a result of the her withdrawal from Tianjin, wild card Maria Sharapova will take on Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu in the first round.
