Rio de Janeiro: Indian badminton star P.V Sindhu will face reigning All England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan for a place in the final of the women’s singles event at the Rio Olympics on Thursday.
Double World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu has been in very good form, dismissing two higher-ranked opponents – Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying and World No. 2 Wang Yihan of China in the pre-quarter-final and the quarter-final respectively.
World No.10 Sindhu stunned last edition’s runner-up Yihan in straight games. Faced with a much higher rated opponent, the 21-year-old from Hyderabad scripted a 22-20, 21-19 victory in 54 minutes over the former World No.1 at the Riocentro Pavilion 4 on Tuesday.
The Indian won the majority of the long rallies and used her power-packed smashes and cross-court shots to good effect.
Sindhu’s Rio show thus far has put her on par with Saina Nehwal, who was the first Indian women’s singles player to reach the semi-finals of the Olympics at the London Games in 2012. Saina won a bronze medal at the London Games.
Now, Sindhu faces a tricky opponent in Okuhara, who has been living a dream in a fast-rising career.
The Japanese won her first BWF Superseries title at the 2015 home Open. In 2016, the 21-year-old won the prestigious All England Open, becoming the first Japanese woman player to achieve this feat in the last 39 years.
On the other hand, the 21-year-old Indian became the first ever Indian women’s singles player to win two bronze medals at the World Championships.
She won the 2013 World Championship bronze by defeating Bae Yeon of Korea and Minatsu Mitani of Japan in 2014.
It will be the fifth meeting between them with the Japanese dominating thrice and having the upper hand at the last meeting at Badminton Asia Team Championships 2016 at Hyderabad.
Sindhu had just edged over Okuhara in Badminton Asia Youth Under 19 Championships 2012 in the third and deciding game.
After two bronze medals in the World Championships, Sindhu has improved the standard of her game, and it remains to be seen how well she tackles the deceptive game and rock solid defence of World No.6 Okuhara.
Meanwhile, India’s Kidambi Srikanth went down fighting to two-time defending champion Lin Dan of China in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event of the badminton competition.
Five-time world champion Dan edged World No.11 Srikanth 21-6, 11-21, 21-18.
With this win, the 32-year-old Chinese legend took a 3-1 head-to-head lead against the 23-year-old Indian.
In the semi-finals, Dan will face his long-time rival and Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, who crushed Chinese Taipei’s Tou Tien Chen in a dominating 21-9, 21-15 victory.
However, Dan will not be happy with the way he was stretched against Srikanth, who was playing in his maiden Olympics.
In the first game, the pressure of the occasion and his towering opponent told on Srikanth as the Chinese surged to an early 5-1 lead and then increased it to 10 points to make it 11-1 in just seven minutes.
Srikanth, however, won two points after that but Dan just got stronger with each point and maintained his lead.
The Indian, who made a lot of errors on his net play, surrendered the first game 6-21.
The second game saw a turnaround as Srikanth raced to a three-point lead at the start and then took a 6-3 lead.
The second game witnessed errors creeping into Dan’s play while Srikanth showed his potential against one of the best players on the world circuit to make it 11-5. Dan seemed to be struggling to defend cross-court smashes from Srikanth.
After the mid-game interval, the Indian seemed more assured as he notched a string of points. On the last few points, he ensured there were no more hiccups and clinched the second game.
In the decider, the Chinese dominated proceedings initially but then Srikanth came back to tie it 6-6. Srikanth managed to break the momentum and went into the mid-game break ahead 11-8.
Srikanth fought gallantly right to the end before Lin took the third game 21-18.
Lin’s big-game mentality helped him pull through in the end as Srikanth made a couple of unforced errors.
