Sindhu will look to lay her hands on the gold medal this time, following a thrilling loss in the final in Rio on the back of a fine campaign.
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Day 1 of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics witnessed a massive achievement from the Indian perspective after Mirabai Chanu helped the nation win its first medal in the edition. Chanu won a silver medal in the 49kg weightlifting event, resulting in a significant boost to the spirits of the fans back home. However, the day’s action further witnessed a major blow as B Sai Praneeth crashed out of the men’s singles event, after losing his opening match to Israel’s Misha Zilberman. The badminton star was expected to emulate the heroics of Kidambi Srikanth in the Rio Olympics but crashed out early much to the disappointment of the fans.
There is now additional pressure on PV Sindhu who will be facing off against Ksenia Polikarpova (ranked 58th) of Israel and Cheung Ngan Yi (ranked 29th) of Hong Kong in Group J of the Women’s Singles Group Play stage. Sindhu’s first match against her opponent from Israel will start on 7.10 AM IST. However, one major factor going into the event will be the fact that the badminton star did not have a great outing this year. She recorded just one final appearance at the Swiss Open and a semi-final finish at All England. Both the tournaments ended with tense losses against Carolina Marin and Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong.
However, the break in the schedule which has been made available due to tournaments getting cancelled presented her with an opportunity to work on new skills, which could well be unravelled going into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“Because of the lack of events, shuttlers get the time to work on your game and also get the chance to recover properly. On the BWF Tour, the players are usually playing non-stop. They are strained. Now they have had a chance to rest. But while the time is good to add to their game, they have not had a chance to test it out,” said two-time Olympian Aparna Popat to Scroll.
“We hope that those changes will work. Going back to 2016, that’s what Marin did. She came out at Rio with two-three things added to her game and just took everyone by surprise. Even Sindhu, with her jump smashes. Those really worked. Everyone would have had this time, so it is going to be really interesting to see who have added what,” she added.
At the same time, Sindhu will draw motivation from her unprecedented run at the Rio Olympics. The badminton star surpassed experienced veteran Saina Nehwal to win a silver on debut, in comparison to a bronze for the senior pro.
Since Rio, the Hyderabad shuttler has consistently reached the finals of major events. She will draw confidence from her past success and is expected to get past Ngan Yi and Polikarpova. Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt is expected to face off against Sindhu in the pre-quarters and will pose a great challenge. However, the badminton star has a superior 4-1 record. World No. 5 Japanese star Akane Yamaguchi and world no 1 Taiwanese Tai Tzu Ying will provide stern competition in the later stages. All the effort will be worth it if Sindhu can help India win a historic gold in badminton.
