Akane Yamaguchi and PV Sindhu
PV Sindhu v Akane Yamaguchi is a quarter-final at the Olympics 2020 tennis matches and here are the live stream details, preview, prediction and more
PV Sindhu kept India’s hopes of an Olympic Gold medal very much alive with her straight games win over Mia Blichfeldt in the Round of 16. Her scores read 21-15, 21-13.
Sindhu won the Silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which was just one of the two medals India won at the Brazil Olympics.
She will be taking on number 5 ranked Japanese, Akane Yamaguchi in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Yamaguchi, on the other hand, is coming off a straight games win over South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun in the Round of 16. She will be looking forward to carrying on her impressive run in her home country.
Both Sindhu and Yamaguchi are yet to drop a game in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and hence one can expect a cracker of a contest when the two women take centrestage.
The winner of the contest will be taking on the winner of the 4th quarterfinals between No.5 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, the number 2 seed.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics is telecasted in over 130 countries, with NBC, CNBC, BBC, BEIN Sports, Sony Sports Network being the major players.
USA – NBC & Peacock TV
UK – BBC TV
India will be providing extensive coverage since Sindhu is one of the probables to fetch India a Gold medal. It will be telecast live on Sony Ten 2 & HD, Sony Six & HD, with other channels like Sony Ten 3, Sony Ten 4 providing coverage in regional languages.
Sony Liv App provides live action as well.
The match is scheduled to begin 1:15 pm IST.
PV Sindhu and Akane Yamaguchi have met 18 times previously. Sindhu has the lead with 11 wins, and Yamaguchi 7.
Having struggled against the Japanese in recent times, Sindhu bounced back with a win in a marathon contest at the All England Open match, earlier this year. After going down in the first set, Sindhu showed remarkable bouncebackability to win the next two.
The match might turn out to be one of the most closely contested badminton matches in this year’s Olympics.
Both the stars have been ruthless en-route to the quarter-finals. Sindhu started her quest for Gold with a demolition of Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova, beating her straight games 21-7, 21-10.
She then followed it up with another drubbing of Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong. Once again a win in straight games — 21-9, 21-16.
Then came Blichfeldt. Although, the Dane wasn’t that easy of a ride like her previous opponents, Sindhu still earned a 21-15, 21-13 victory in straight games.
Akane Yamaguchi, had it easy as well. She obliterated Pakistan’s Mahoor Shahzad 21-3, 21-8 in straight games in her first match.
Yamaguchi then beat Kirsty Gilmour of Great Britain 21-9, 21-18, once again without dropping a game to advance to the round of 16 where she beat Kim Ga-eun 21-17, 21-18.
Sindhu might have to dig deep if she has to beat Yamaguchi at her home turf. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the match goes the distance.
Prediction: PV Sindhu to win – 3 games
