Reigning world champion P V Sindhu sailed into the women's singles quarterfinals with a straight-game triumph over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in the Olympics badminton competition on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Indian, who won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, notched up a 21-15 21-13 win over 13th seed Blichfeldt in a 41-minute match.
P V Sindhu will next face the winner of the match between Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and Korea's Kim Gaeun.
"I started off well in the first game but around 15-16 I gave a couple of points because I was rushing in my defence. My coach was telling me that I was playing the wrong way and I realised that and I immediately changed my tactics and completed the first game," P V Sindhu told media after the match.
"Second game I was fine, I was maintaining the lead and finished it off," she said as reported by PTI.
P V Sindhu mixed her strokes well, putting her attacking clears and drops to good use besides smashing her way to finish points whenever there was a chance.
She anticipated the shuttle better and showed good court coverage during the 41-minute clash.
Blichfeldt did have her moments but she was too erratic to sustain the pressure on the Indian, who was always a step ahead of her rival during the contest.
Blichfeldt had a 2-0 lead early on but P V Sindhu soon took back control at 6-4 and kept her nose ahead before unleashing a cross court smash to enter the interval with a healthy 11-6 lead.
The Danish shuttler scripted a mini-comeback, winning six of the next seven points, riding on a few smashes and Sindhu"s unforced errors.
An unlucky net chord broke the run of points but Blichfeldt sent down two straight smashes to again narrow it to 14-16 before succumbing to a series of unforced errors.
The Indian revved up the pace in the second game to zoom to 5-0 but a wrong line judgement from her ended the run of points.
Blichfeldt tried to find an opening but Sindhu was always a step ahead as she again held a five-point advantage at the break.
After the interval, Sindhu lost a few points due to the occasional brilliance shown by her rival and sometimes, her own unforced error, but she was always in control and soon wrapped it up with a delicate shot near the net, the report said.
