Tokyo Olympics: PV Sindhu stroms into Women's Singles Quaterfinals after defeating Mia Blichfeldlt

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 29 July 2021

PV Sindhu's Olympic dreams of competing in Tokyo have come true. The World No. 7 stormed into the quarterfinals of the women's singles badminton event at the Tokyo Olympics.

PV Sindhu produced a clinical performance against World No. 12 and highly-talented Mia Blichfeldlt in her Round of 16 match at the Musashino Forest Plaza in Tokyo, defeating the Danish shutter 21-15, 21-13 in 41 minutes.

In the quarter-finals on Friday, Sindhu will face the winner of the Round of 16 match between 4th seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and 12th seed Kim.

The Indian shuttler's roars reverberated through the empty Tokyo stands as Sindhu toppled Mia, defeating the Danish shuttler in a game of aggression. Sindhu struggled to get going in both of her women's singles group-stage matches against lower-ranked opponents, but on Thursday, the Indian shuttler was on from the start.

Sindhu spoke about Mia's aggressive nature on the eve of their Round of 16 match. In fact, the two shuttlers met twice in 2021, with the Danish star stunning Sindhu at the Thailand Open in Tokyo before Sindhu avenged that defeat at the Swiss Open.

With all of that knowledge at her disposal, Sindhu began the match not just matching but outright dominating her opponent's aggression. She was moving beautifully on the court and mixing it up well, allowing her to race to an 11-6 lead in the first game. Sindhu stated in the run-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 incredible.

Mia, who found her feet after the break in the first game, caused Sindhu problems on her backhand side. She strung together a five-point run to make it 11-13 in the first game, but Sindhu found an extra gear to finish the game in 22 minutes.

Sindhu, who had been here and done this before, was not going to back down after winning the first game, and she raced to a 5-0 lead in the second game.