PV Sindhu wins bronze medal to create history for India at Tokyo Olympics
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PV Sindhu created history on Sunday by winning the bronze medal match against China's He Bing Jiao at the Tokyo Olympics. She won the match 21-13, 21-15 to become the first Indian woman ever to win two individual Olympics medals. She had lost the final of the women's singles event at the 2016 Rio Olympics to settle for a silver medal.
Sindhu needed to start strong in the match to get her self-confidence up, which must have been rattled by the one-sided semi-final loss on Saturday to Tai Tzu-Ying.
Sindhu was off the blocks immediately with a clutch of winners and took a 4-0 lead in the first game, thanks to her attacking display. An unforced error from Sindhu gave the Chinese her first point and she made it 2-4 with a well played point at the net.
An unforced error put Sindhu 5-2 ahead, but Bing Jiao played a great cross court shot to end a long rally and then won a couple points on the bounce to tie the first game at 5-5.
Bing Jiao continued to force Sindhu to play at the net but the Indian was up to the challenge and went ahead 8-6. The two players played out a great rally with Sindhu leading 9-8 as Bing Jiao produced some great defensive play, but the Indian closed out the point with a powerful smash to go ahead 10-8. Sindhu took her advantage to 11-8 with another smash as the two players went into the mid-game break.
Sindhu came out all guns blazing after the break as she dictated the pace of the rallies really well to break away to a 14-8 lead. Bing Jiao started a mini revival as she went up to 11 points but Sindhu kept a sizeable lead over her opponent with some great display of attack and defence, as she went up 18-11.
