Tai Tzu Ying, the touch artist was at her scintillating best, outclassing PV Sindhu in straight games 21-18, 21-12 in the women’s singles semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
But all is not over the Indian. She still can win a bronze if she beats He Bingjiao of China in the playoff on Sunday. Binjiao lost to top seed Chen Yufei of China in three games 16-21, 21-13, 21-12. Though Bingjiao enjoys a 9-6 win-loss record, Sindhu had defeated her in their last meeting at the World Tour Finals in 2019.
Sindhu looked good in the first game as she started off with a 5-2 lead. Retrieving almost everything thrown at her, Sindhu went into the break with a three-point lead 11-8, despite Tai troubling her with her trickery.
Upset with her loss, Sindhu told the BWF website, “I’m a bit sad because it’s the semifinals, but I tried my best, it’s just not my day. I fought until the end.”
After the break, Tai clawed her way back into the match winning four straight points to move to 12-11. The momentum suddenly shifted in favour of Tai. Though Sindhu stayed close it was very difficult to stop Tai when the latter grew in confidence. The world No.1 played three body smashes and many drop shots to take the sting out of Sindhu’s attack.
The Indian worked hard to stay close until 18-18 before Tai came up with a three-point burst to close the issue. If the first of these three points, a round the head drop was a delight to watch, the straight smash was ferocious.
In fact, Sindhu dominated most of the game but Tai seized control towards the end.
After taking the first, Tai looked at ease in the second game. She repeatedly troubled Sindhu at the net and though Sindhu tried to change the pace of the game by playing some aggressive smashes, Tai was unperturbed.
Her trademark crosscourt acute-angled drop, a shot even many of the men’s shuttlers could not match, was a regular feature of her second game, winning maximum points for her.
She went into the break with a healthy 11-7 lead and clinched the match with a power-packed cross court smash.
Incidentally, this is Tai’s first medal at a major championship. Despite dominating the world of badminton for the last seven years, Tai had never won an Olympic medal nor a world championship medal.
Sindhu said she was prepared for Tai’s skills. “I was prepared for her skills, so I don’t think that troubled me a lot. At the end of the day the level of the semifinals is going to be really high – you can’t expect easy points. I just couldn’t be on the winning side,” Sindhu said.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles semifinals, little-known world No. 59 Kevin Cordon of Guatemala will face Viktor Axelsen of Denmark while defending champion Chen Long of China will play Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.