Most memorable moments in PV Sindhu's career

Published at :July 5, 2024 at 9:41 AM

Modified at :July 5, 2024 at 9:41 AM

(Courtesy : BAI)

PV Sindhu is the only Indian woman to have won two medals at the Olympics.

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, fondly nicknamed “The Queen of Majors,” is a 2019 World Champion, a double Olympic medalist, and a medalist at the Asian Games and Championships, among other accolades. At just 17, PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman shuttler to win a medal at the World Championships. The prodigious Sindhu didn’t stop there; she went on to equal Zhang Ning’s record of five medals at the World Championships, becoming the only Indian to have become a World Champion in the sport.

Sindhu is the youngest Indian to ever win an Olympic medal at an individual event and the first woman to win a silver. She added another bronze in the subsequent Olympics. She also became the first Indian to play in an Asian Games final match, where she won a silver. Sindhu remains the only Indian to have won the season-ending World Tour Finals event.

She has won two Uber Cup medals in 2014 and 2016, contributing significantly to the historic Badminton Asia Team Championships win in 2024. A Commonwealth champion and a junior Asian Champion, Sindhu broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Rankings in September 2012, at the age of 17. Honored with the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, PV Sindhu is also the highest-paid Indian female athlete for the last two consecutive years.

Let’s delve into some of the extra special moments of the ever-astonishing career of PV Sindhu:

2012 China Masters

In the 2012 China Masters, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, then a seventeen-year-old prodigy, defeated the reigning Olympic champion, Li Xuerui, in the quarterfinals. This marked Xuerui’s first loss after winning the Olympics. Earlier that same year, Xuerui had won the All England Open, India Open, and Asia Badminton Championships. This is considered one of the earliest breakthroughs of Sindhu’s career and remains one of the biggest upsets to date.

Sindhu narrowly lost the semifinal match against then World No.4, Jiang Yanjiao of China, with scores of 10–21, 21–14, 19–21.

2013 World Championships

2013 was a very special year for the young Sindhu. She won her first BWF Grand Prix Gold in Malaysia and participated in her first World Championships in the senior category. She defeated the defending champion, second-seeded Wang Yihan of China, 21–18, 23–21 to enter the quarterfinals. She went on to beat another higher-seeded Chinese player, Wang Shixian, 21–18, 21–17, becoming only the second Indian to medal in the singles events at the World Championships since Prakash Padukone’s bronze medal in 1983.

However, she lost in the semi-final to the eventual champion, Ratchanok Intanon, and settled for bronze. This marked her first step towards becoming one of the most established players at the BWF World Championships event.

2017 World Championships

The tale of the 2017 World Championships for PV Sindhu was one of being so close, yet so far. At 22, she was already an Olympic silver medalist and entered the tournament as a major contender for the title. The Women’s Singles final match at the 2017 Glasgow event is considered one of the greatest matches ever played, lasting for 110 minutes, making it the second-longest match ever played in the discipline.

The scores were 21-19, 20-22, 22-20, not in Sindhu’s favor. She missed out on the gold by a whisker, with Nozomi Okuhara taking it. This was the closest an Indian shuttler has ever come to becoming a World Champion. The years 2016 and 2017 were a glimpse of what was to come for the peak Sindhu.

2021 Tokyo Olympics

This time, a World Champion stepped onto the court. PV Sindhu was one of the favorites for Gold at this Olympics. She advanced to the semifinals without much difficulty. However, her arch-nemesis, Tai Tzu Ying, whom she had defeated on her way to becoming the World Champion, was waiting for her. This time, she lost to Ying in straight games.

The next day, she faced He Bing Jiao of China for the bronze medal match and comfortably took home the medal, becoming the only Indian woman to have won two consecutive Olympic medals.

2019 World Championships

The 2019 World Championships saw the “Queen of Majors,” Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, who had already won four medals at this event, but not a gold. After two consecutive silvers in 2017 and 2018, the “Silver Queen” had had enough. The world witnessed peak Sindhu at this tournament. Fearless, aggressive, and attacking, she defeated her arch-nemesis, Tai Tzu Ying, in the quarterfinals and Chen Yufei in the semifinals, marking her third consecutive final match appearance.

A familiar face awaited her on the final day in Basel: Nozomi Okuhara, the same player to whom Sindhu had narrowly lost the gold in 2017. But this was a different day. A dominant Sindhu took the gold with scores of 21-7, 21-7. Thus, she became the first and, to date, the only Indian to have won the World Championships.

2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics

Pusarla faced many hardships on her journey to her maiden Olympics. A twenty-year-old girl, returning from a career-threatening injury, made it onto the list. She wasn’t even considered close to achieving what she eventually did. A complete underdog, she persevered until the final match of the Olympics. She defeated Michelle Li, Tai Tzu Ying, second seed Wang Yihan, and Nozomi Okuhara, whom she had never beaten before in the same tournament. Excluding the match against the Canadian player, Sindhu won all her matches in straight games.

She lost to the ever-amazing Carolina Marin, but in the process, she became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Olympics and the youngest Indian ever to win a medal in an individual event.

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