World No.10 Sindhu registered a 21-19, 21-10 triumph in the semi-finals over world No.6 Okuhara to become the first Indian shuttler to enter the final of the Olympics.
Advertisement
Sindhu will meet Spanish top seed Carolina Marin, who hammered Li Xuerui 21-14 21-16 in the earlier semi-final. A parody account, that goes by the name of cricketer Virender Sehwag, played on the words “Shobha” and “De” while taking on the author and congratulating wrestler Sakshi Malik for bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Sindhu once again opened up a 3-0 lead, but the Japanese soon clawed back and grabbed a slender 5-3 lead with the Indian finding it hard to keep the shuttle inside the court. In the second set of the game, she won 10 points without gap after the half points break to win against Okuhara. With Thursday’s brilliant show Sindhu went one better than her senior Saina Nehwal, bronze medal victor in London four years ago, and became the first ever Indian to enter the summit clash of the shuttle game in the quadrennial sports spectacle.
The Indian, double World Badminton Championships bronze medallist, came up with performance of her career as she beat her Japanese rival comprehensively.
Okuhara saved a point to make it 19-20 but Sindhu took the opening game 21-19 off the next service.
With several Indian medal hopefuls falling by the wayside, the burden of expectations is firmly on Sindhu’s shoulders in the final few days.
“#PVSindhu. you played a super game”. The Japanese shuttler pulled it back to 10-12 after the break, but Sindhu’s reach helped her pick up points regularly. Smash, smash, and smash was her mantra, and a majestic smash won her the match.
Wang seemed a bit demoralised by the loss of the first game as Sindhu kept up the pressure in the second.
Sindhu retrieved everything that was thrown at her, but she rushed on to a stroke to hit the net.
Advertisement
The seond game saw a more confident and aggressive Sindhu who quickly moved to 3-0 before Okuhura caught up with her at 3-3, thanks to a couple of poor returns by Sindhu. Her smashes were so good that the opponent couldn’t even take her time to stand up and prepare for the next shot.
