Tokyo 2020 Olympics: PV Sindhu defeats MiaBlichfeldt sets to enter women's quarter-finals

The World No. 7 PV Sindhu stormed into the quarterfinals of the women’s singles badminton event at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. PV Sindhu earned a hard-fought 21-15 21-13 win over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt to advance into the quarter-final of women's singles at the Tokyo Olympics. Sindhu raced to an 11-6 lead in the first set before the Danish shuttler leveled things up. Sindhu, however, cashed in on Blichfeldt's unforced errors to grab the first game 21-15.

The loud roars from the Indian shuttler reverberated through the empty stands in Tokyo as Sindhu toppled Mia, beating the Danish shuttler in a game of aggression. Sindhu got off the blocks slow in both her women’s singles group-stage matches against lower-ranked opponents but on Thursday, the Indian shuttler was switched on from the word go.

On the eve of the Round of 16 matches, Sindhu had spoken about the aggressive nature of Mia. In fact, in 2021, the two shuttlers met twice and the Danish star stunned Sindhu at the Thailand Open in Tokyo before Sindhu avenged that defeat in the Swiss Open.

With all that knowledge in her bag, Sindhu started the match not just matching her opponent’s aggression but overpowering it. She was moving wonderfully on the court and mixing it up well to race to an 11-6 lead in the first game. Sindhu had said in the lead-up to the Games that she was working on a couple of new shots and the accuracy with which she is hitting the overhead drop is astounding.

Earlier, Sindhu had defeated Hong Kong's NY Cheung 21-9, 21-16 to top Group J. The ace shuttler is the lone Indian badminton hope left after B Sai Praneeth's maiden Olympic campaign came to an end in the men's single's competition.