India’s PV Sindhu defeated He Bing Jiao of China to win the women’s singles bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics. With this win, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals. Sindhu dominated Bing Jiao 21-13, 21-15 as she shook off the disappointment of losing the semi-final to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying on Saturday. She had won silver at Rio Olympics in 2016 after losing to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final. Besides Sindhu, wrestler Sushil Kumar is the only other Indian athlete to win two individual medals at the Olympic Games.
Having suffered a heartbreaking loss to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the semi-finals in Saturday, Sindhu came out with purpose on Sunday and stamped her authority in the bronze medal match, right from the start.
She sped to a 4-0 lead, putting down an early marker. He Bing Jiao clawed her way back to make it 5-5 and then made it 6-5 to lead for the first time in the match.
Sindhu roared back to life, leaving her Chinese opponent scrambling around the court. Some more authoritative shots put the Indian 11-8 ahead at the mid-game interval of the first game.
Not only were Sindhu’s dominant smashes causing problems for He Bing Jiao but her ability to retrieve made sure that the Chinese had to work doubly hard to win points.
Sindhu’s power and guile proved just too much for Bing Jiao as the Indian took the first game 21-13.
Like in the first, Sindhu was quick out of the blocks and came out all guns blazing in the second and took a 4-1 lead, going on to open a 11-8 lead in the mid-break.
NDTV
