Olympics 2021: Clinical PV Sindhu breezes past Mia Blichfeldt to enter quarterfinals

A clinical PV Sindhu stormed into the quarterfinals of Tokyo Olympics 2021 with a commanding 21-15, 21-13 win over World No. 12 Mia Blichfeldt in 41 minutes. The Rio Olympic silver medalist will next face the winner of the match between Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and South Korea's Kim Ga-eun.

After a brief 0-2 deficit in the opening game, the world champion pretty much dominated the proceedings. Sindhu's smashes and judgment were on point as she sailed to a 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval.

The Dane then managed to reduce the deficit to one point at 15-16 with some lovely dropshots that kept Sindhu guessing. But the Indian soon wrested control with her brilliant show of aggression to wrap up the game 21-15.

With the opener in the bag, the Indian looked more confident as she began the second game. PV Sindhu's brilliant angles and crosscourt smashes gave the Dane no chance to mount a comeback.

Sindhu raced away to a 5-0 lead before the World No. 12 could even find herself on the board in the second game. With Blichfeldt visibly struggling and looking clueless to find answers, the World No. 7 built an 11-6 advantage at the interval.

A few rare unforced errors from the Indian gifted the Dane a couple of points to reduce the gap to four points at 10-14. But that didn't affect Sindhu's seamless progress as she quickly found herself at 20-11 with a whopping nine match points in hand before converting her third.

𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗜𝗧 🔥Reigning world champion @Pvsindhu1 puts up a stellar performance in pre quarters to beat 🇩🇰's M Blichfeldt 21-15, 21-13 and enters quarter finals of @Tokyo2020 💪🏻#SmashfortheGlory#badminton#Tokyo2020#Cheer4India#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/aUWy0GX7YQ

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 29, 2021

PV Sindhu and Mia Blichfeldt had shared wins earlier this year before their Tokyo Olympics showdown. This time the Indian had come prepared and executed her strategy flawlessly from start to finish for her fifth win over the Dane in six meetings.

This is PV Sindhu's third win on the trot at the Tokyo Olympics. She had earlier topped her group with a 21-7, 21-10 win over Ksenia Polikarpova and a 21-9, 21-16 win over Cheung Ngan Yi.

The World No. 7 is the last Indian shuttler standing at the ongoing Games following the exits of B. Sai Praneeth in men's singles and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in men's doubles.