Paris: PV Sindhu began her Tokyo Olympics campaign with a dominant win in her group-stage match on Sunday at the Musashino Forest Plaza. The 6th seed defeated Israel’s unseeded Ksenia Polikarpova in straight games — 21-7, 21-10 — in just 29 minutes.
PV Sindhu has been drawn in Group J along with Polikarpova, who is ranked 58, and Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi. Sindu is the favourite to top the group and qualify for the knockout rounds at the Tokyo Games.
Siindhu showed why she is rated as one of the medal prospects as she came up with a near-perfect display against Polikarpova. It was a slow start from the Rio Olympics silver medallist as Sindhu went down 1-3 before making it 5-5. Sindhu was getting used to the conditions in Tokyo and once she settled in, it was one-way traffic.
Sindhu won 12 straight points to take it to 17-5 before closing out the frist game 21-7. Unlike the first game, there was no starting trouble in the second as the Indian completed the first-match win in just 29 minutes.
Sindhu will next face Cheung Ngan Yi on Wednesday. Only one shuttler from the group will progress to the Round of 16.
Earlier on Saturday, India’s Satwiksairaj, Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty notched up a stunning 21-16 16-21 27-25 win over the world no. 3 pair of Yang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang of Chinese Taipei in their opening Group Stage match.
However, 13th seeded B Sai Praneeth suffered a shock 17-21 15-21 loss to world number 47 Misha Zilberman of Israel in a 41-minute men’s singles group D match.
