Dikhyaa Mohanty 
India’s CA Bhavani Devi becomes the first fencer from the country to win an Olympic match, defeating Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi 15-3 to advance to the Round of 32 in the women’s individual sabre event at the Makuhari Messe Hall.
According to the official reports, Bhavani overpowered Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi by 15-3 in just 6 minutes and 14 seconds. Bhavani’s official FIE rank is 42, while youngster Nadia was ranked 384. Bhavani dominated the matchup from the word go as fencer reached 8 points without a reply from Tunisian youngster in the first half.
Bhavani Devi who is 27 year old Chennai born fencer started cautiously, and allowed Nadia to initiate the attacks but rarely allowed the Tunisian to build on the ‘right of way’ as she pinned her opponent time and again to pocket her points in the Round of 64.
Nadia couldn’t hold much in the second half too, as she tried to delay the inevitable as 29th seed soon won India’s first ever fencing match in the history of Olympics. Bhavani Devi was pumped from the first ‘En Garde’ and led all the way through. However, Devi was knocked out after losing to France’s Manon Brunet in the Table of 32 match.
She also became the first Indian to clinch a silver medal at the Asian Championships in 2014 in the Philippines and is also the first from the country to win a Commonwealth Championships gold, registering her victory at the 2019 edition in Canberra, Australia. She had also come agonisingly close securing a berth at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
