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Badminton

Tokyo Olympics: A look at PV Sindhu's road to the bronze medal clash

Here's how the World No. 7 ace PV Sindhu reached the bronze medal stage of the Tokyo Olympics, after losing out on a close fight to Tai Tzu-ying.

Indian Badminton Player PV Sindhu at Tokyo Olympics
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PV Sindhu at Tokyo Olympics (Source: AP)

By

Kalptaru Agarwal

Updated: 31 July 2021 11:47 AM GMT

With her dream of an Olympic gold getting crushed by Tai Tzu-ying who stormed into her very first Olympic final, World No. 7 PV Sindhu will now contest the bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics. Having already bagged a silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, PV Sindhu will now aspire to take her medal tally to 2 at the Olympics as she will face-off against China's He Bingjiao for the brown metal.

PV Sindhu has been exceptional at the Tokyo Olympics cruising her way to the semi-finals in fashion before Tai Tzu-ying rudely checked the Indian's ambitious advance towards a second Olympic final. Even though the golden dream is now cast aside, the bronze one still glistens. Let's take a look at PV Sindhu's road to the bronze:

Before the Games

The former World No. 2, PV Sindhu won the silver medal at the Swiss Open and reached the semis at the All England Open before entering the Tokyo Olympics with the 6th seed ranking. She was placed in Group J alongside Ksenia Polikarpova of Israel and Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong.

Group Stages

Match 1

PV Sindhu in her very first game emerged victorious by thrashing her opponent from Israel, Ksenia Polikarpova in straight games with a score 21-7, 21-10. An easy victory for India's best female shuttler.

Match 2

Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi was predicted to be a good competition pre-match but was overpowered by the sheer class of PV Sindhu who defeated her by 21-9, 21-16 in straight games before marching on to the pre-quarters stage. With a 2-0 win bracket, she topped the group to meet Mia Blichfeldt in the Round of 16.

Pre-Quarter finals

Pusarla has trained over years for Tokyo Olympics and this has been her dream for a long time. The Rio Olympics Silver medallist had no issues dealing with Denmark's top shuttler Mia Blichfeldt who she smashed by a score of 21-15, 21-13 to enter the quarters.

Quarter finals

Running her series of victory without losing a single game, Sindhu now faced the World No. 4 Akane Yamaguchi from Japan, who was projected to be a tough fight for the experienced Indian shuttler. Yamaguchi looked weak during the first game but tried to make a comeback in second, though no luck for her as she suffered the loss at the hands of Sindhu by 21-13, 22-20.

Semi-finals

This was the toughest of all games for the unstoppable PV Sindhu as she faced the formidable Chinese Taipei star and current World No. 1 in badminton Tai Tzu Ying. The match was extremely thrilling as both the shuttlers had quick movements and deceptive shots in their bucket. However, Tai Tzu did not allow Sindhu to settle into the match and she handed the 2019 World Champion a shock defeat in straight games, 21-18, 12-12 in just 40 minutes. Therefore, with Sindhu's shot at gold now missed, she will play for the bronze instead.


Bronze Medal Match (To be held)

PV Sindhu will now face He Bingjiao of China in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics which is going be a mouthwatering encounter and history awaits to be written as India is just a match away from securing another medal from the Games and Sindhu's second one from her second Olympic outing.

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