Indonesia's Anthony Ginting three wins away from making history
The tournament fifth seed will face Anders Antonsen in his quarter-final match at Tokyo 2020
Badminton
Anthony Sinisuka Ginting is Indonesia's only remaining hope to reclaim the men's singles title at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The 24-year-old has advanced to the quarter-finals as his compatriot Jonatan Christie fell in the round of 16. It's the first time since Beijing 2008 that Indonesia has had a men's singles player reach the last eight.
Ginting, who has never made it past the third round at the world championships, finds himself playing possibly the biggest match in his career, as he takes on Denmark's Anders Antonsen in the quarter-finals on Saturday (31 July).
On paper, the Indonesian has played the Dane three times in the past and has managed to triumph each and every time. Their last encounter was before the global pandemic at the 2020 Indonesian Masters final where Ginting clawed his way back after losing the opening game to clinch the title.
However a lot has changed since then with Antonsen emerging a more serious player to contend with post-pandemic lockdown.
At the start of this year, Antonsen defeated his compatriot and Rio 2016 bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen to clinch the World Tour Finals title. While Ginting failed to make it out of the group stage in the same tournament.
As a result, 24-year-old Antonsen is seeded third here in Tokyo and has shown more consistent form in tournaments leading up to the Games compared to the Indonesian.
Ginting cruised through his group stage matches against Gergely Krausz from Hungary and Sergey Sirant from ROC without dropping a game.
He then dispatched of Japan's Tsuneyama Kanta in similar fashion to set up his quarter-finals clash against Antonsen.
He is now just three wins away from realising one of his biggest dreams, to win an Olympic gold medal, which will surely elevate him to unimaginable stardom back home in badminton-crazy Indonesia.
The last Indonesian to clinch the crown was Taufik Hidayat who triumphed at Athens 2004. Before him, Alan Budikusma won the maiden title on offer at Barcelona 1992.
29 years on from when the sport made it's Olympic debut, Ginting is looking to become the third Indonesian to clinch the coveted men's singles title.
Ginting's quarter-finals match against Anders Antonsen is scheduled for Saturday, 31 July at 12:20pm in Japan.