Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu kept India’s hopes of gold alive in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. The reigning World Champion stormed into the semi-finals after picking up a thumping win over world no 5 Japanese Akane Yamaguchi here on Friday. The 26-year-old, who won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, displayed outstanding skills to claim an emphatic 21-13, 22-20 win in a 56-minute quarterfinal clash at the Musashino Forest Plaza here.
Sindhu will next play the winner of the second quarterfinal between Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon and Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying. PV Sindhu has dominated her Japanese counterpart and had an 11-7 head to head record coming into the quarterfinals. The sixth seed Indian had beaten the Japanese at the All England Championship in March this year.
Sidhu booked her berth in the quarterfinals after beating Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt, 13th seed, in the pre-quarterfinals. Sindhu is the only Indian competing for a medal in badminton after men's singles player B Sai Praneeth and men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bowed out in the league stage.
Meanwhile, the cricket fraternity was all praise for the star shuttler. Here's how they reacted.
Fantastic show from @Pvsindhu1. Those smashes were wow.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 30, 2021
. @Pvsindhu1 up 1 set against the higher ranked local! How are you all going India? Calm?? pic.twitter.com/qYc5bi2IB6
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) July 30, 2021
What a close game! Second consecutive Olympic semi-finals @Pvsindhu1. take a bow...Congratulations. #Tokyo2020 #Badminton
— Yusuf Pathan (@iamyusufpathan) July 30, 2021
PV Sindhu 🥇🥈🥉 #Olympics 👏👏
— Mask up and take your vaccine🙏🙏🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) July 30, 2021
WHAT. A. MATCH.🤯
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) July 30, 2021
She's a champion and she played like one. Superb Sindhu Storms into Semis! Congratulations @Pvsindhu1 🏸👏🏻🇮🇳 #GoForGold #Olympics #Tokyo2020 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/nNPwMl84Gd
What a show of mental strength and fitness from #PVSindhu Great game! Onto the semis now.#Olympics2020
— Abhinav mukund (@mukundabhinav) July 30, 2021
Yesss PV Sindhu!! 🔥🔥#HowYouDoWhatYouDo #TeamIndia #Badminton #Olympics
— Shikha Pandey (@shikhashauny) July 30, 2021
What a game !👏👏👏🇮🇳 @Pvsindhu1 champ best wishes for the semifinals 😊🇮🇳💫 #IndiaAtTokyo2020 #PVSindhu @Olympics pic.twitter.com/P76kHZRUP2
— Rahul Sharma (@ImRahulSharma3) July 30, 2021