India will be sending a 7-member contingent in badminton to compete at the Rio Olympics, and among them will a couple of debutants in the singles category. One of those will be PV Sindhu who, after a four-and-a-half year career, will head to the Brazilian capital to compete in her maiden Summer Games.
We take a look at her journey to her debut Olympics:
The beginnings
Having taken up badminton for the first time at the age of eight, PV Sindhu’s maiden impactful foray into the sport came when she was 14, as she won bronze at the Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships. A year later, in 2010, she won the silver medal at the Iran International Challenge, and she also reached the quarterfinal stage of the Junior World Championships.
2012 – The Olympic upset
Mere months after she won the Olympic gold medal in London, Li Xuerui faced up against Sindhu in the China Masters at the quarterfinal stage. Still a bit of a rookie on the international stage, Sindhu was expected by most to bow down to the reigning Olympic champion. But the Indian surprised everyone with a superb performance, and won the quarterfinal in three games.
She continued to show further promise that year, finishing the runner-up at the Senior Nationals as well as the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, and finishing the year as World No. 15.
2013 – The first major win
2013 began on a positive note for Sindhu as she clinched the Malaysia Open title. Then a few months later, she created history by becoming the only the second Indian and first woman shuttler from her country to win a World Championship medal, going past some very big names in the process.
She ended the year like she started it, winning a second title – this time in Macau – to round off a fruitful 2013.
2014 – A second World Championships medal and Uber Cup success
2014 saw Sindhu enter the semifinal of her maiden Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and she was part of the bronze medal winning Uber Cup team. She repeated her exploits from 2013 at the World Championships, winning a second consecutive medal – this time in Copenhagen.
2015 – Inconsistency creeps in
After two good years on the professional circuit, 2015 proved to be a difficult year for Sindhu as far as winning on a consistent basis was concerned. One of her big wins came in October when she beat Carolina Marin in the semi-finals of the Denmark Open Superseries Premier, and then a few months later she won her third consecutive title in Macau.
2016 – A maiden Olympics berth
The current year began on a positive note for the Indian as she won the Malaysian Open in January. But she couldn’t sustain her momentum, losing in the opening round at the All England Championships.
She did, however, look in fine nick at the Uber Cup, losing just the solitary match, and will look to carry that form into the Olympics as well.
