Paris Olympics 2024: He Bing Jiao avenges Tokyo loss; denies PV Sindhu third medal

PV Sindhu and China’s He Bing Jiao had played each other 20 times prior to their Round of 16 match on Thursday at the Paris Olympics, with the head -to-head record favouring the latter 11:9. Heading into the match, India’s top badminton player, Sindhu was hopeful of returning home with another medal, but that was not to be.

For He Bing Jiao, who had won their last encounter at the Asian Games, this Olympic Games match presented her with an opportunity to avenge the loss at the hand of India’s top player only 4 years ago in the semi-final, which gave Sindhu her second Olympic medal.

The first game of the match was a tight affair, with both players going neck to neck until the very end with He Bing Jiao swinging it her way with a very narrow margin (21:19). If Sindhu had any plans of turning things around in her favour in the second game, He Bing Jiao was not about to let that play out. The Chinese player was a dominant force running to an early lead, while Sindhu tried valiantly to fight back.

But despite her best efforts, He Bing Jao was at match point at 20:13. Sindhu won the next point, but then ran out of steam, as He Bing Jiao sealed her spot in the women’s singles quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the two Indians in the men's singles category - Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy - played each other in the quarter-final, in which the former prevailed, booking himself a semi-final spot and a shot at a medal. 

All the action of the Paris Olympics can be streamed live on JioCinema.