Assures India of 2nd medal at the Rio Olympic Games.
After Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal victory, shuttler PV Sindhu has assured one more medal for India at the Rio Olympics. The 21-year-old Sindhu beat Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the badminton singles semi-finals to secure a place in the final.
Sindhu beat the world No. 6 Okuhara in straight games 21-19, 21-10 to become the first Indian player to enter the Olympic final in badminton. She will take on Spain’s Carolina Marin for the gold in the final match to be held on Friday.
Sindhu won the first game after starting with an impressive 4-1 lead. Okuhara made a strong comeback to reach 15-17. But Sindhu, who was aggressive on the court, bagged the game 21-19.
In the second game, Sindhu won 10 straight points to make it 19-10 after leading the game at 11-10. Finally, she bagged the game 21-10 with a smash. India will win silver even if she loses in the final.
Sindhu had earlier beaten China’s Yihan Wang, the world no. 2, to advance to the semi-final.
The Hyderabad girl comes from a family of volleyball players. She began playing badminton at the age of eight and trained under Pullela Gopichand.
In 2014, Sindhu had reached the semifinal stage of Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the women’s singles competition. Earlier this year she won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women’s singles title. She was awarded India’s fourth highest civilian honor Padma Shri in 2015.
Congratulations started pouring in after she reached the finals with the stunning victory.
Amitabh Bachchan took to Twitter to congratulate Sindhu. “YEEEAAAAHHHHHH !! COME ON INDIA… PV Sindhu in FINALS of Womens Badminbton at #Rio2016 .. another women from India ! HISTORIC,” He tweeted.
“#PVSindhu in Finals of women’s badminton ..never before has any Indian ever reached the finals of this sport at #Rio2016 ..HISTORY,” Bachchan said in another tweet.
“Sakshi….Sindhu…. Dono ko Salaam!” tweeted Shah Rukh Khan.
Aamir Khan tweeted, “Way to go Sindhu! Congratulations! You have made India proud!!! All the very best for the finals. Love.a.”