P. V. Sindhu or Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an ace shuttler and silver medalist at 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. This young badminton player from Andhra Pradesh was born to volleyball players P. V. Ramana and P. Vijaya in the year 1995. Her father was honoured with Arjuna Award for having displayed excellence in his sport. One of the youngest and talented badminton players of the contemporary times, Sindhu has featured in top 10 in the world badminton rankings for the most part of 2014.

Started Off Early in Her Life

She started playing badminton from the age of eight after she drew inspiration from Pullela Gopichand’s victory in All England Open Badminton Championship in 2001. That’s the reason why she chose badminton over volleyball although her parents were professional volleyball players. Her initial apprenticeship started with Mehboob Ali at the badminton courts of Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications in Secunderabad. Later, she joined Pullela Gopichand’s badminton academy to further enhance her sporting skills.

Sindhu’s Performance in Domestic Arena

Sindhu’s first major recognition came in the form of the 5th Servo All India ranking championship for under-10 category.

She also won the singles title at the Ambuja Cement All India ranking.

In the under-13 category, Sindhu won doubles titles at the IOC All India Ranking, Krishna Khaitan All India Tournament, the Sub-Junior Nationals and the All India Ranking in Pune.

At the 51st National School Games in India, Sindhu won the gold medal in under-14 category.

P. V. Sindhu didn’t take much time to launch and establish herself as a promising player in the global arena:

Sindhu won a bronze medal at the 2009 Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships held in Colombo.

The star player bagged silver in the women’s singles at Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge in 2010.

She found a place in the national team at the 2010 Uber Cup.

On 7 July 2012, she won Asia Youth Under-19 Championship. In the same year, she stunned London 2012 Olympics gold medallist from China and entered the semi-finals of Li Ning China Masters Super Series tournament.

Sindhu’s performance at Malaysian open 2013 made her win the maiden Grand Prix Gold title.

The best moment in her career perhaps came in the same year when she became India’s first medallist in women’s singles at the Badminton World Championships.

P. V. Sindhu ended 2013 on a happy note by winning Macau Open Grand Prix Gold title, and the Arjun Award, one of the highest honours for a sportsperson in the country.

In 2014, she won back-to-back medals in the World Badminton Championship and became the first Indian to do that.

In 2015, she played at the Denmark Open and reached to the final defeating three seeded players, namely Tai Tzu-ying, Wang Yihan and Carolina Marin. In November the same year, she defeated Japan’s Minatsu Mitani and bagged successive women’s singles title at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold.

2016 brought her another achievement of winning the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women’s singles title, where she defeated Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in the final. In August, she reached the semifinal of the women’s singles event at the 2016 Summer Olympics after defeating World No.2 Wang Yihan.

She created history by reaching the finals after beating Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the women’s singles semi-final in the Rio Olympics. She won a silver medal in the finals, while the gold has been taken by Spain’s Carolina Marin.

She defeated Carolina Marin and won 2017 India Open Superseries title.

She received Padma Shri in 2015, which is the fourth highest civilian award of India.

In 2014, she got the FICCI Breakthrough Sportsperson.

In 2014, she also received NDTV Indian of the Year.

In 2016, she received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

Not many of her fans are aware of the diligence that Sindhu puts in her training process. The-19-year old has been reportedly working out with her coach from as early as 4.15 am every day for the last three years.

P. V. Sindhu was named 2014 NDTV Indian of the year. In the same year, she brought glories to the country by winning a bronze in 2014 Uber Cup held at New Delhi. In the preceding year, she had won a bronze medal in women’s singles event in 2013 BWF World Championships hosted by China.

She scripted history by becoming the first Indian to have won two back-to-back medals in the World Badminton Championships.

The best endorsement of Sindhu has been Gopichand’s words about her dedication and commitment to the sport: “The most striking feature in Sindhu’s game is her attitude and the never-say-die spirit.”