Rio de Janeiro, August 16: Shuttlers P.V Sindhu kept India’s medal hopes alive by entering the quarter-finals as boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav crashed out while the athletes continued to cut a sorry figure at the ongoing Rio Olympics here. Sindhu entered the last eight stage of the women’s singles event by defeating Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in straight games.
Sindhu dominated right from the start to defeat her highly rated opponent 21-13, 21-15 within 40 minutes in the pre-quarterfinal clash at Court 2 of the Riocentro Pavilion 4 on Monday.
Before Monday’s match, Tzu-ying enjoyed a 4-2 advantage in head to head encounters against Sindhu. But the 21-year-old from Hyderabad was in superb form and dominated her opponent throughout the match.
But Sindhu is expected to face a much tougher challenge in last eight stage as she will now face World No.2 Wang Yihan of China.The 21-year-old from Hyderabad admitted that Wang Yihan will be a difficult opponent, but is confident of creating an upset. “Tai Tzu-ying was giving very good flicks. She was attacking very good and even her drops were very good. But eventually it was a good win for me. I hope tomorrow is also a great one,” Sindhu said. “But tomorrow is a tough game as I am playing World No 2. I will give my best and play my game. Strategy-wise I will discuss with my coach. I have played against her several times but there has been a long gap since then.”
Later in the day, Vikas had an opportunity to bag India’s first medal at the Rio Olympics when he faced Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals of the men’s Middleweight (75kg) category.
The Haryana boxer needed to reach the semi-finals to make sure of a bronze, but he was no match for the 20-year-old Uzbek, going down 27-30, 26-30, 26-30 against the silver medallist of the 2015 World Championships.
Vikas’ exit brought the Indian challenge to an end. Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) had earlier crashed out of their respective weight categories.
“I thought that on August 15 I would present a medal to my people in India but I could not do it,” the 24-year-old Haryana pugilist lamented after his bout.
“Our boxing federation was banned so we could not go out to other countries to train with better boxers. But I am not blaming anyone. I lost because of me. I am sorry that I could not win,” he added.
