Reigning world champion P V Sindhu sailed into the women's singles quarterfinals after beating Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in straight games at the Tokyo Olympics badminton competition here on Thursday. The 26-year-old Indian, who won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, notched up a 21-15 21-13 win over 13th seed Blichfeldt.
Playing aggressive and deceptive shots that kept her opponent on the run throughout the match, Sindhu outplayed Mia in just 41 minutes. Mia, who was ranked 11th in the world a couple of years back, had sent Sindhu packing from the Thailand Open in January this year, found the Indian star, silver medallist at the Rio Olympics and gunning for gold here, too strong on Thursday and could not play her usual game as Sindhu took control from the start.
Sindhu will next face the winner of the match between Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and Korea's Kim Gaeun. On Wednesday, Sindhu had defeated world No. 34 Hong Kong's NY Cheung 21-9 21-16 to top Group J. Sindhu is the lone Indian badminton hope left in fray after B Sai Praneeth's maiden Olympic campaign ended in agony in the men's competition. He went down in straight games to Mark Caljouw of Netherlands for his second defeat in Group D.
On Tuesday, the men's doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy suffered a heartbreak after failing to make the quarterfinals despite winning two matches in their group.