Wrestling
Vinesh Phogat to face Vanesa Kaladzinskaya in her quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympics
After easily winning her pre-quarters match, Vinesh Phogat will look to replicate her performance in the quarters against Vanesa Kaladzinskaya.
Vinesh Phogat (Source: United World Wrestling)
The No. 1 seed in the women's freestyle 53kg wrestling at the Tokyo Olympics, India's Vinesh Phogat ruled the mat in her pre-quarters match defeating Sofia Mattsson of Sweden by 7-1. The Asian Champion of 2021 has been in a dominating form this season and is displaying her similar class performance at the Olympics.
She has been predicted to be the biggest medal hope for India at the Summer Games 2020 based on her form and past matches. She will now face 2-time World Champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in her quarterfinal match who defeated Beatrice Andreea by technical superiority (10-0).
The Belarusian wrestlers faced Vinesh at the XXIV Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial Tournament in February 2021 where Phogat got the better of Vanesa by 10-8 to clinch the gold medal against the 2017 World Champion.
The contest was close as both grapplers tried to out perform their opponent to take the lead but the Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat stood her ground.
The quarters' match is going to be intense as both Vinesh and Vanesa will try to book a berth to play at the semi-finals in Tokyo.
