PV Sindhu on Friday defeated a higher-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-13, 22-20 in the women's singles quarter-final of badminton at the Musashino Forest Plaza Court 1 to secure a place in the semi-final in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020. The quarterfinal match between Sindhu and Yamaguchi lasted for 56 minutes. This is Sindhu's third successive win in Tokyo Olympics.
For the silver medal, the star shuttler will face the winner of next quarter-final between Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchnok Intanon. Sidhu performed brilliantly in the match that lasted 56 minutes and did not give Yamaguchi any chance to find her lost rhythm. If Sindhu wins this match, she will confirm a silver medal for India. Sindhu had won a silver medal in the Rio Olympics, but this time she has a great chance to bag the Gold medal for India and script history.
Sindhu was trailing 5-6 to Akane Yamaguchi at the start of the first set, but she made a strong comeback in the match to win the first set 21-13. In the second set too, there was a fierce competition between the two players, but Sindhu was successful in beating the World No. 2 by 2 points and win straight sets.
Earlier, PV Sindhu had defeated Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt 21-15, 21-13 in just 41 minutes in the Round of 16 match of women's individual event in the Tokyo Olympics at the Musashino Forest Plaza Court 3 on Thursday.
The 2016 silver medallist on Sunday started her Tokyo campaign on a good note after defeating Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova 21-7, 21-10. The entire match lasted for just 28 minutes.