Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Born July 05, 1995, in Hyderabad, India. Her parents are both National level sportspersons with her father part of the bronze medal-winning volleyball team at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. Sindhu’s first tryst with training in the sport she chose was at Mehboob Ali at the badminton courts of Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications in Secunderabad under Mehboob Ali. Subsequent to which she came under the aegis of her inspiration, Pullela Gopichand at the Gopichand Academy, Hyderabad.
Her diligence, talent started to bear fruit in her winning the under-10, under-13 years categories. Soon she went on to lay her hands at the Under-14 national state games title. A chronology of her title and career progression bares open her diligence and never give up spirit.
Bronze at the 2009 Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships, in Colombo
Silver medal in singles category in 2010 at Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge.
She made it to the quarterfinals of the 2010 Junior World Badminton Championships held in Mexico.
Sindhu won Asian Youths Under 19 Championship in July 2012 beating Japanese Player Nozumi Okuhara. Their intense rivalry that began at the time has prevailed in some absorbing contests yet.
She finished runner-up in the Syed Modi India Grand Prix Gold event in December 2012 in Lucknow.
First Grand Prix Gold title came in 2013 in the form of the Malaysian Open title
Sindhu became India’s first medalist in women’s singles at the World Championships when she entered the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships in Aug 2013, taking down, en route, the defending champion Wang Yihan.
Next trophy she would conquer was the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold Title, December 2013
The government of India bestowed her with Arjuna Award on 24 September 2013 for her prodigious talent that was soon to surge exponentially and install her as a world-beater in the years to come.
She made it to the semi-final of both the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2014 BWF World Badminton Championships. Two bronze medals in succession at these games made her the first Indian badminton player to achieve the landmark.
Silver medal at Denmark Open, 2015 and that was her first final of a Super Series event. A resurgent Sindhu notched successive wins over seeded players who had the better off her in their last outings, including Carolina Marin with whom she holds an intense sporting rivalry on the court and great camaraderie off it.
She lay claim to her third consecutive Macau Open Grand Prix Gold title, November 2015.
Sindhu was bestowed with prestigious Padma Shri in 2015 by the national govt.
An unrelenting world-beater now, Sindhu won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women’s singles title, in January 2016.
The legend reached the pinnacle at the showpiece mega event. Rio Olympics, 2016. One by one Sindhu’s self-assurance, fortitude took down all her rivals en route reaching the women’s singles final. A nation glued to screens for her final with Carolina Marin aloft and poised in pride for the star. Eventually, after a pulsating 83-minute duel Sindhu graced the podium as the youngest and first female individual to bag an Olympic Silver medal representing India. The nation rose to collectively salute her courageous star’s spirit and mettle.
P V Sindhu was anointed with the highest sporting honor of the country in 2016, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
She soon avenged her loss to Carolina Marin in the India Open Super Series in 2017. The same year in April, her world rank graced the number 2 spot.
In another pulsating encounter that was the final of the BWF World Championships, August 2017 at Emirates Arena in, Glasgow, Scotland Sindhu settle for silver after losing to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara.
Sindhu defeated Okuhara in the final of the 2017 Korea Open Super Series thereby becoming the first Indian to win Korea Open.
In August 2017 Sindhu roared into the final of the BWF World Championships and set up another match with Nozomi Okuhara. The 110-minute slugfest saw Sindhu losing after tying 20 games all in the final set. This match went in the history books as arguably the best ever women’s singles final.
Sindhu had to settle for the Silver at the Dubai World Super Series Final after another sweating duel with Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
The same player stopped Sindhu’s juggernaut at The All England Open, 2018 in the semis in another clash that stretched to closely fought three sets
While representing the country she won a Gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, in the mixed team event and a Silver medal in the women’s singles event, losing to compatriot Saina Nehwal in the final.
Sindhu settled for a silver at the Asian games 2018 with Tai Tzu Ying ending her winning streak at the games.
The 2018 World Championships, in August, saw her claiming second consecutive silver medal losing to Carolina Marin in the final and fourth medal overall in World Championships.
In the back of her consistent top of the line performances, Sindhu qualified as the only female shuttler from India for the prestigious BWF World Tour Finals. She set the record straight against players who had got the better off her by defeating them to clinch the prestigious title.
She had to remain content with a silver in her duel with Saina Nehwal in the final of Indian National Badminton Championships, in 2019.
After a string of early exits in several tournaments, Sindhu reached her first final of the season in the Indonesia Open. Though she got the better off Nozomi Okuhara in the semis, another Japanese prevailed in the final and Sindhu had to contend with the Silver
In August 2019 Sindhu set rewrote the record books in Gold by clinching the World Championships and thus became the first Indian to win Gold at the championships. She did so with a clinical demolition of the game of Nozomi Okuhara as the scoreline 21-7, 21-7 suggests.
Sindhu in a very short span has trailed such an illustrious career that can be an envy of any professional sportsperson across the spectrum of sports. Her consistent spate of successes founded on her resolve, self-belief and exceptional skill has set a benchmark of achievements that sets her apart to the legions of sportspersons in India.
