PV Sindhu with a winning start at the Tokyo Games overcame Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova on Sunday in the women’s singles of the group stage match.
Sixth seed Indian defeats Polikarpova who is ranked 58th, 21-7-21-10 in her opening match at the Japanese Capital.
The 26-year-old will now face world number 34, Cheung Ngan Yi of China next. Sidhu began dominating with her attack mode but later got weakened 3-4 down but managed to go ahead shortly to enter the break with an 11-5 dominance.
World number seven from India then promptly grabbed 13 straight points using her label straight with cross-court hits to forge difficulty to Polikarpova who failed to take up the occasional chances she received in her way. The game ended in favour of the Indian side as Sidhu’s opening victory.
Israel’s Polikarpova played with her whipped knee as she battled with her shots while the Indian opponent cleared up a 9-3 lead in the second set reaching the mid-interval with a huge benefit of a seven-point. Sidhu took vast advantage of her Israeli competitor’s mistakes while she made 13 made points with her one more deep shot. She wasted three of the match points but Polikarpova couldn’t turn it into her favour and propelled the game to end upsetting her.