Tokyo 2020: Sindhu wins bronze, becomes first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals

P.V. Sindhu won her second consecutive Olympic medal in women’s singles Badminton at the Musashino Forest Plaza in Tokyo on Sunday, becoming the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals. Sindhu beat China's He Bingjiao 21-13, 21-15 to secure a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020.

With a silver medal from Rio 2016 and a bronze from Tokyo 2020, Sindhu is now only the second Indian to win two individual Olympic medals, after Sushil Kumar. 

Sindhu, the reigning world champion, won the first game against Bingjiao 21-13 with a massive eight point lead, closing it in just 23 minutes.

Though He Bingjiao was putting on a good fight with better technique and shot selection at the start of the second game, she had no response to Sindhu’s smashes, net play and drop shots.

Sindhu held on to her lead for much of the second game, even as Bingjiao tried to bounce back with long smashes. By the mid-game interval, she led 11-8. However, after the interval, Bingjiao turned the score level before Sindhu restored her lead. Sindhu went on to dominate the remainder of the game with a variety of shots.

Sindhu galloped to a 4-0 lead early on but Bingjiao started to engage her in rallies and waited for her to make errors. The rallies started getting intense as Bingjiao set up the points with her angled returns and flat pushes to claw back at 5-5. The Chinese left-hander didn't give Sindhu pace to play her power game but the Indian soon worked her way around even as her opponent committed a few unforced errors. Sindhu ended another superb rally with a cross court smash and entered the interval with another down the line hit at 11-8.

The Indian stepped up the pace after the break to gather three more points and looked in total control to pocket the opening game when her opponent went wide. After change of ends, Sindhu continued her aggressive game, egged on by coach Park Tae-Sang from the sidelines, to lead 4-1 with a cross court return. Bingjiao tried to change the momentum but Sindhu rode on her attacking half smashes and slices to keep her nose ahead at the interval with a three point advantage. Bingjiao erased the deficit quickly before a precise smash on the line helped Sindhu wrest back control. She soon restored the three point advantage with another cross court drop.

The Indian didn't let the advantage slip and grabbed five match points with another of trademark smash and when Bingjiao went wide, she held her head in disbelief before letting out a cry of victory.

This was Sindhu’s 16^th game against Bingjao yet. While the latter has won more games against Sindhu, Sindhu won the last match they played. Up against an opponent, who had beaten her nine times so far in the last 15 meetings, Sindhu showed great determination to outplay Bingjiao with her aggression to scoop India's third medal at Tokyo.

Sindhu was unable to secure India's first ever Olympic gold in badminton as she slumped to a straight-game defeat against Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying in the women's singles semifinals in Tokyo on Saturday. Tai Tzu Ying is set to play China's Y.F. Chen (who defeated Bingjiao on Satuday) today for the gold medal.

Earlier, men's singles player B. Sai Praneeth and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had failed to qualify for the knockout stage. 

With Sindhu’s bronze, India are assured of at least three Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020, with Mirabhanu Chanu’s weighlifting silver and boxer Lovlina Borgohain assured of at least a bronze medal (she will play Turkey’s B. Sureneli on Wednesday in the women’s welterweight boxing semi-final).

With inputs from PTI