Tokyo’s Musashino Forest Sport Plaza is a familiar venue for India’s PV Sindhu – it’s where she made it to the quarterfinals of the 2019 Japan Open, dancing to the deafening cheers and chants of spectators. But on Sunday, when the reigning women’s singles world champion plays Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova, most of the seats at the stadium that can hold 7,200 people will be empty.

“I’m going to miss the spectators, the crowd. The way the crowd motivates the players is fantastic,” Sindhu told media late on Thursday (July 22) after training at Musashino. “But I’m getting used to it because I’ve played a couple of tournaments now without crowd … I miss them, but we have to get used to these situations now,” the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist said.

Sindhu was beaten to the gold in Rio by Spain’s Carolina Marin, who withdrew from the Tokyo Games in June after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). “Definitely, I’ll miss her and that rivalry on court, but I think that even though she’s not there it’s still not going to be easy,” Sindhu said.

“The last time in 2016, I was not a known person, but I think now people are looking at me and knowing my game.”

The shuttler, ranked world no. 7 by the Badminton World Federation, is up against fierce competition from the likes of Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-Ying, China’s Chen Yu Fei and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, who knocked Sindhu out of the quarter-finals at the 2019 Japan Open.

India’s hopes are on Sindhu’s shoulders after former women’s world No. 1 Saina Nehwal, who won a bronze at the 2012 London Games, failed to break into the top 16.

“She (Sindhu) is in there to win. She’s been training quite hard, using different techniques and flexibility exercises because she’s so tall,” said Steve Kearney, director of USA Para-Badminton.

“The Japanese and other teams worked on tight drops to make her bend over quite a bit and she’s addressed that now. I honestly think women’s singles is wide open.”

Star Indian archer Deepika Kumari finished ninth in the women’s individual ranking round to secure an easy first-round clash in the main event as the country’s Olympic campaign kickstarted at the Yumenoshima Park in Tokyo on Friday (July 23). The world No. 1 finished with 663 points, while 20-year-old Korean prodigy An San (680) topped the qualification round with an Olympic record score of 680. Deepika will now have an easy first-round outing against world No.193 Karma of Bhutan, who finished 56th in the ranking round.

The Indian might run into San in the quarterfinal stage. Deepika had lost to her in straight sets during their only exchange in an Olympic Test event at the same venue in 2019. The previous Olympic record score in the individual ranking round was 673 held by Ukraine’s Lina Gerasymenko way back at Atlanta 1996 Olympics.

The world record (692) is held by Kang Chae Wong, the world No.3 who finished third with 675 points for a Korean top-three in the qualification round. Jang Minhee (677) finished second.

Deepika fancied her chances at the halfway mark (36 arrows) as she occupied the fourth place with 334 points, one point ahead of Korean heavyweight Kang Chae Wong. But she slipped in the back-end and was woefully out of mark with two 53s in the eighth and penultimate end to slip behind, while Mexican Alejandra Valencia climbed to the fourth place.

“I feel my performance was good as well as bad…It was in between I would say,” Deepika said.

On her slip-up in the final six sets, she said: “I don’t know why it was like that; I was trying to control my shots so that I could play better.”

Deepika’s biggest challenge is likely to be in the last-eight where she might run into San who is making her Olympic debut. Two years after she lost at the same venue to San at the ‘Tokyo 2020 Test Event’ here, Deepika would look to avenge her final defeat.

“I’m talking to myself, I’m controlling my emotions and trying to make myself better and better. I want to show my best performance here and I will show that in my next rounds,” Deepika vowed to come back strong.

India begins its #Tokyo2020 journey with @ImDeepikaK finishing 9th with a score of 663 in the Women’s recurve archery ranking round.

South Korea’s An San created a new #Olympic record with a score of 680.

Send in your wishes for #TeamIndia with #Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/0QKAImz6YI

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) July 23, 2021

The qualifying round results are used to seed the athletes and nations for the individual, mixed team and team competitions, deciding their opponents in the competition. Archers shoot 72 arrows at the target set 70 metres away, in 12 series of six arrows.

They are ranked from highest to lowest at the end of the round. An archer’s position after the ranking round becomes their seeding for matchplay. The Games will officially open this evening.

(with PTI inputs)