PV Sindhu beat Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt to enter the quarter-finals of the women's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. World No. 7 Sindhu beat world No. 12 Blichfeldt 21-15, 21-13 in 41 minutes to make it to the last eight, where she will face Japan's Akane Yamaguchi, 21-17 against South Korea. , 21-18 is the winner. Kim gown.
With her win, Sindhu improved her 5-1 one-on-one record against Blichfeld, whose only win against the Indian came at the Thailand Open earlier this year.
In the first game, sixth seed Sindhu started with a few errors before 13th seed Blichfeldt threw a bunch of errors to put the Indian 4-2 ahead. Sindhu then started settling into a slightly better rhythm than Blichfeldt. The two players exchanged body smashes, but from 6–4 onwards, the Indian won five of the next seven points, going into the break to lead 11–6, thanks to a big inside-out forehand smash. , which was celebrated by shouting "Aa bhi".
After the break, Blichfelt began to get into the game. Down 13-6, the Dane won the next five points to finish the points before Sindhu targeted the backhand side of the court with smashes and long lifts. Blichfelt used his touch to pull Sindhu forward and into the outside position on several occasions and the high-risk strategy had some success, but it also resulted in some errors. Four such errors helped Sindhu lead 16-12 before she fought back, taking charge of the points to reduce the deficit to 16-15.
However, errors continued in Blichfeld's high-risk play, and a body smash from Sindhu fetched five game points for the Indian, who sealed the game when a short forehand landed wide from Blichfeld.
Sindhu carried on her momentum in the second game, where she ran for a 5-0 lead, before a wrongly-decided discharge helped Blichfeldt get on the scoreboard. While the Dane continued to push Sindhu out of position with her drop shots and down line smashes, she also easily dropped several points with her errors. A sharp crosscourt forehand and a long lift followed by an inside-out forehand again helped Sindhu to lead 11-6.
This time Sindhu did not let Blichfelt get as close to the first game. She remained ahead and won the next four points, 16–11, aided by Dane's errors in the net and behind the court. The first two of Sindhu's nine match points ended before she deflected a body shot with a short backhand winner to secure the win.