Singles, Women

For the singles group stage, the number of seeds corresponded to the number of groups, 13, with the seeded players placed at the top of each group. The remaining players were drawn into the groups, one by one, until all players were allocated a group. After the round-robin, the top player from each group progressed to the round of 16, with the top three seeds going straight into the last eight. The fifth seed and London 2012 bronze medallist, Saina Nehwal from India, and Britain’s 11th seed Kirsty Gilmour were the only seeds not to advance to the knock-out stage.

Spain’s number one seed Carolina Marín did not have any problems until the final when she surprisingly lost the first set 19-21 to the ninth seeded Indian P. V. Sindhu. But she upped her game and won the next two sets 21-12 and 21-15. The bronze medal went to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, the sixth seed, who beat the defending Olympic champion, and number three seed Li Xuerui of China, by a walkover due to an injury to Li.