P.V. Sindhu has the title of being the world champion and has the distinction of reaching the finals last time in the women’s singles of the Olympics. She has defeated the best players of the world many times. This time she has outplayed many players participating in Tokyo Olympics and has high hopes for a medal.
Sindhu’s ranking is number six currently. Apart from Sindhu, the medal winners of the previous Olympics will be Nazomi Okuhara of Japan. Of course, Carolina Marin of Spain will not be there this time, but still the level of competition is expected to be much higher with the emergence of many players. At Rio, after eliminating Tai Tzu Ying in the round-of-16, she disposed of the second-seeded Wang Yihan and Japanese star Nozomi Okuhara in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively. She lost the final against Spain’s Carolina Marin.
Even after losing the final round from Carolina Marin, her silver medal was nonetheless an immense achievement for the nation. Aside from her international success, P.V. Sindhu also partakes in the domestic Premier Badminton League, captaining and playing for the Hyderabad Hunters.
Sindhu is working hard under the training of Korean coach Park Tae-sang. She is placed in group J and has to face the world’s number 34th Cheung Ngan Yi from Hong Kong and the world’s number 58th Ksenia Polikarpova from Israel in the group stage. It is believed the Indian shuttler will enjoy head-to-head lead over both the players.
As Sindhu moves forward in the knockout stage of the tournament, she has to face Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt. Sindhu has an edge over Blichfeldt and leads at 4-1, but the major concern is the defeat against Blichfeldt at Yonex Thailand open in January this year.
The quarters will bring the court on fire as Sindhu would face the world’s number 5th Japanese star Akane Yamaguchi on her home turf and backed by home support. This match could be a hurdle in Sindhu’s run for gold. Yamaguchi and Sindhu have faced 18 matches against each other out of which the Indian badminton Shuttler has won 11 times.
If Sindhu qualifies, she is going to face the world’s no. 1 Tai Tze Ying known as the queen of deception in the semi-final. Sindhu has defeated Tai in the Rio pre-quarters clash in the straight games but this time the queen of deception seems to be fit and determined too.
If Sindhu manages to clear all the hurdles she is going to rewrite the history of Indian badminton by becoming the first Indian to win two Olympic medals in badminton and the first Indian shuttler to win Gold in Olympics.