PV Sindhu managed to hold her own against fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi, delivering a sensational performance.
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Indian badminton star PV Sindhu defeated Akane Yamaguchi of Japan by a 21-13, 22-20 margin in the women’s singles quarter-final of the ongoing Tokyo 2020. Sindhu has now reached the semi-final of the event, which is a massive boost to the hopes of fans back home. She will take on Tai Tzu Ying. The Indian badminton star started the first game on a dominant note, leading 11-7 at the interval. While the first few points witnessed a little bit of passiveness from Sindhu, she quickly switched tactics to race ahead. Yamaguchi did not help her cause by making a number of errors, struggling with the drift going down the court from her end.
Sindhu maintained the lead after the game resumed, seeming absolutely unfazed which has been one of the highlights of her campaign so far. The Indian had all the right answers to Yamaguchi’s moves, mixing aggression with excellent defensive skills. The Japanese shuttler won two spectacular points towards the end of the first game, but Sindhu maintained her dominance winning the first game by a 21-13 margin.
The Indian badminton star maintained the supremacy initially in the second game, taking a 10-5 lead. Sindhu further maintained a relentless attitude, stretching the dominance in scoreline to 14-8. However, Yamaguchi made a soaring comeback in this scenario, bouncing back with aplomb to make it 15-13.
It was a close contest from this stage as both shuttlers battled it out for supremacy. Yamaguchi led 20-18 at one point, resulting in some labelling her as a favourite for the second game. However, Sindhu pulled off a fantastic comeback to sail into the semi-finals, following a 22-20 win sealing off the contest.
“Today’s second game was very crucial. Even though she was leading, I never lost hope, I was not that nervous. We have trained so hard for this. And my coach was telling me ‘It’s okay, it’s not over yet, you can do it’. And yeah, I have done it. There were some really long rallies, and she came back. I always knew she would be coming back even though I was leading. There were a few errors from my side when I was hitting smashes, but apart from that, I’m happy to have finished the game in 2 games,” said the shuttler after the game.
The Indian badminton star defeated Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 21-15, 21-13 in the round of 16 women’s singles Badminton match. The sixth seed Indian dominated the match against the 13th seed as she finished it in just 41 minutes.
Blinchfedt took a quick two point lead as the Indian took a little bit of time to get going. But once the Rio Olympics silver medalist settled in, she took a 6-3 lead. Sindhu further extended it to 10-5 with her brilliant anticipation.
The Indian maintained the lead throughout the match as she gained the momentum and didn’t let the Dane close the gap.
Meanwhile Blinchfedlt targeted Sindhu’s left side to take some points. But the Indian earned five game points at 20-15 and then quickly closed to win Game 1 at 21-15.
In the second game, the 2019 world champion quickly raced to a 5-0 lead. Although the Dane took a couple of points to stretch the Indian but Sindhu was up for the challenge as she led 11-6.
Sindhu extended the five point lead as she maintained the momentum. Blinchfeldt was playing the catching up game as Sindhu was dominating the rallies.
The 26-year-old earned nine game points and then was quick to close the game and book her place in the quarter-finals.
