3 things we learned from PV Sindhu’s win against Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova at Olympics 2021

PV Sindhu made a bold opening statement with a crushing win over Ksenia Polikarpova to launch her Tokyo Olympics campaign on a stupendous note on Sunday.

Sixth-seeded Sindhu outclassed Polikarpova 21-7, 21-10 in her opening Group J outing at the Musashino Forest Plaza Court 2 in Tokyo.

The World No. 7 Sindhu made light work of Polikarpova from Israel, who is ranked 58 in the world. Rio Olympic silver medalist Sindhu needed just 28 minutes to notch up her first win of the competition.

Sindhu’s smooth win will give Indian badminton fans some joy after the disappointment of another singles player, B Sai Praneeth, who lost to lower-ranked Misha Zilberman of Israel on Saturday.

Reigning world champion Sindhu will face World No. 34 Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in the second and final Group J clash.

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1. Sindhu made a strong statement with an easy win

It was expected that Sindhu would beat Polikarpova but the manner in which the tall Indian shuttler did it, gave plenty of hope to the fans. It showed she was in brilliant form and ready to go all the way.

She was clinical in her approach and looked in good touch. The scores were quite impressive although she must have hoped to concede fewer points to her opponent, particularly in the second game.

The fluency will give her other opponents a strong message that she is in Tokyo to repeat her medal-winning performance from the last Olympics.

2. Sindhu displayed a good attacking performance

Attacks have always been Sindhu’s forte. She likes to trouble her opponents with her attacking shots. Sindhu dished out a solid attacking performance during her Sunday encounter. Barring a brief period initially in the first game when Sindhu was trailing 3-4 she was always in control of the situation.

With scores poised at 3-4 in the first game, she went on to win 13 consecutive points and showed everyone that she meant business and wanted to dominate her opponent. Sindhu's powerful down-the-line smashes caught her Israeli opponent off guard more often than not.

3. A good beginning for the Sindhu-Park duo

Sindhu has been training exclusively under Korean coach Park Tae-Sang for the last four months at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. With no tournaments since March, Park often created match-like situations for Sindhu during practice sessions. It seems like the plan has worked wonders for Sindhu.

The coach will be happy with Sindhu’s display against the shuttler's Israeli opponent. There are bigger battles ahead but this is a promising start for the duo of Sindhu and Park.