Sindhu in quarter-finals after easy win over Tzu Ying

P V Sindhu had things her way before making it to the quarter-finals in the women's singles badminton competition with a 21-13, 21-15 victory over Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying at the Rio Olympics on Monday night.

The 21-year-old from Hyderabad outclassed the eighth seeded Tai in 40 minutes.

The twice World Championships bronze medallist will meet world No 2 Yihan Wang next. 

Yihan won silver at the London Olympics in 2012 and is a 2011 World Championships winner as well as Asian Games gold medalist in Incheon 2014.

Sindhu, who had a 2-4 record against Tai Tzu, having last beaten her at the Denmark Open last year, opened up a 3-1 lead early on and even though Tai did well to draw level at 5-5, she managed to lead 11-6 at the break.

Tai depended on her deceptive game to reduce the margin to 10-12 but was equally erratic with her placements sometimes, while Sindhu showed better presence of mind.

Sindhu won a video referral to reach game point at 20-13 and then pocketed it comfortably with Tai hitting wide.

After the change of ends, Sindhu again moved to a 3-1 lead but erred twice on her backhand returns to concede two points.

Tai tried to take away the pace from the rallies and came up with a few down the line smashes to make it 6-6 after Sindhu dropped serve.

However, Tai's inability to rein in her unforced errors saw Sindhu lead 11-6 at the interval.

Tai tried to put pressure on Sindhu but failed to give the finishing touch as the Indian sailed away to a 14-7 lead.

With Sindhu in full flow, Tai seemed clueless and was unable to play her own game, staying away from the net.

The Chinese Taipei girl found it difficult to control the shuttle and hit long twice to allow Sindhu a lead of 17-11. A couple of drop shots deflected by the net chord took Sindhu to 19-12 before Tai sent one to the net to gift eight match-points to Sindhu.

Tai saved three match-points before another long shot saw Sindhu seal the issue.

Earlier, K Srikanth reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles, beating world No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark 21-19, 21-19.

• The Rio Olympics, on Rediff.com