Singles, Women

The defending Olympic champion, reigning European champion, and three-time world champion Carolina Marín of Spain qualified for the Tokyo Games, but had to withdraw due to injury. This left the gold medal open for the two competitors who had been battling for the world’s number one ranking: China’s Chen Yufei and Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying. Also in contention was P. V. Sindhu of India, the reigning world and Commonwealth champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist, and hometown favorite Nozomi Okuhara, the 2017 world champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist.

There were no surprises in the group stage, as all of the favorites advanced to the elimination round, with Chen and Tai qualifying directly for the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals again went mostly as expected, with the only notable elimination being Okuhara, who lost in three sets to China’s He Bingjiao. In the semis, Chen defeated her compatriot He and Tai bested Sindhu to set up the most exciting match of the tournament for the final. In a hard-fought match, Chen just barely edged out Tai in three sets, claiming gold. The bronze medal match was more one-sided, with Sindhu emerging victorious over He to capture her second Olympic medal. Tai’s medal was only the second for Taiwan in badminton; the first had come a day earlier when Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin had taken gold in the men’s doubles.