Reigning World Champion P.V. Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of Women’s Singles Badminton event at the Tokyo Olympics after beating Hong Kong’s N.Y. Cheung in a Group J match on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Indian, who had claimed a silver medal in the last edition in Rio, prevailed over World No. 34 Cheung 21-9 21-16 in a 35-minute match to top the group. This was Sindhu’s sixth win over Cheung in as many meetings.
World No. 7 Sindhu will meet Denmark’s World No. 12 Mia Blichfeldt, who topped Group I. Sindhu has a 4-1 head-to-head record against Blichfeldt, whose only win against the Indian was at the Yonex Thailand Open earlier this year.
The shuttler from Hyderabad, seeded sixth, had defeated Ksenia Polikarpovaof Israel in her opening match.
Today at 2.30 pm (IST), B. Sai Praneeth will take on M. Caljouw of Netherlands in his second and final men’s singles Group D match.
Yesterday, Indian shuttlers Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy suffered a heartbreak after they failed to qualify for the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics despite winning two matches in their group.
The Indian duo had emerged victorious against the England pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in their final Group A match but still missed out on qualifying for the quarterfinals after the three pairs ended with same points and games won was considered to identify the qualifiers.
This post was published on July 28, 2021 4:44 pm