Sindhu quick off the blocks

Tokyo, July 25

Reigning world champion PV Sindhu made a dominating start to her Olympics campaign, thrashing Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova in straight games in the women’s singles Group J match here today.

The 26-year-old, seeded sixth, beat the 58th-ranked Polikarpova 21-7 21-10 in a lopsided contest.

“Even though it was an easy first match I didn’t take it in an easy way. It wasn’t like I wasn’t prepared. Every time, it is very important to be focused and be prepared for every single point in every single match,” Sindhu said after the match. “It was quite an easy match but I made sure that we had some rallies and I got used to the court.”

The world No. 7 Indian will next play Hong Kong’s world No. 34 Cheung Ngan Yi. — PTI

Double trouble: Sania Mirza and debutant Ankita Raina were knocked out of the Tokyo Olympics after losing their women’s doubles opener to Ukrainian twin sisters Nadiia and Liudmyla Kichenok on Sunday. They lost 0-6 7-6(0) 10-8. PTI

Rowers making waves

Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh today qualified for the men’s lightweight double sculls semifinals after finishing third in the repechage round here. The duo clocked 6:51.36 to finish third at the Sea Forest Waterway. “We followed exactly whatever had been told to us by our coach. “It’s (rowing) not a very popular sport in India. So our coach told us that getting to the semifinals is also a big motivation for us, and we had to do our best,” the duo said.

Swimmers stumble

Indian swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel’s Olympics campaign came to an end as the two youngsters failed to qualify for the semifinals of their respective events. Both swimmers were unable to match their personal best performances in the 100m backstroke events. Srihari managed a time of 54.31s to finish his men’s 100m backstroke heat in a creditable sixth place. On the other hand, Maana finished with a time of 1.05.20 behind Zimbabwe’s Donata Katai, who clocked 1:02.73.

Manika comes good

Table tennis star Manika Batra made a stunning comeback against world No. 32 Margaryta Pesotska to reach the women’s singles third round but G Sathiyan succumbed to the pressure on his Olympics debut to exit the men’s singles competition. Manika, ranked 62, made a remarkable comeback after losing the first two games to prevail 4-11 4-11 11-7 12-10 8-11 11-5, 11-7 in the second round match. Earlier, Sathiyan had a commanding 3-1 lead but lost four games in a row to lose 4-3 to lower-ranked Lam from Hong Kong.

Nayak packs her bags

Pranati Nayak failed to qualify for the All Round finals of Artistic Gymnastics competition. The 26-year-old recorded a total score of 42.565 over the four categories — floor exercise, vault, uneven bars and balance beam — at the Ariake Gymnastic centre. She scored 10.633 in floor with a difficulty of 4.400 and execution of 6.233, before producing a score of 13.466 in vault with a difficulty of 5.000 and execution of 8.466. In uneven bars, she scored 9.033 with a difficulty of 4.100 and execution of 4.933.

What’s happening?

POOL OF DREAMS

Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui

(in pic) not only stunned swimming superpowers with his gold medal performance in the 400m freestyle – he didn’t quite believe the result himself. “I was so surprised I didn’t accept that,” he told a news conference. “I just can’t believe it. It’s a dream and it became true. It was my best race ever.” Meanwhile, the first world record fell in the pool when Australia won the 4×100 women’s freestyle relay Olympic gold for the third time in a row. The quartet of sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon took 0.36 seconds off their previous best. American Chase Kalisz won his country’s first gold in the 400m individual medley with a swim of 4:09.42.

Golden day for Japan

It was a golden day for the host nation, which shared the lead with China for the most gold medals at the conclusion of events on Sunday. Skateboarder Yuto Horigome took gold at the Games debut of a sport once seen as a symbol of counter-culture. Swimmer Yui Ohashi held on to beat the Americans in the women’s 400m individual medley. Judoka Uta Abe triumphed in the women’s 52kg category in Tokyo, hours before her brother Hifumi took gold in the men’s 66kg final, making history as the first siblings to win gold medals on the same day.

DREAM TEAM DOWN

The US basketball team fell to France 83-76 as the Americans suffered their first defeat since 2004 at the Olympics. The French had upset the US men when they last met in the 2019 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals and they had their number again on the first day of group play at the Saitama Super Arena.