Ace shuttler PV Sindhu nominated for Padma Bhushan award by Sports Ministry

Indian badminton star and World No. 2 in women's singles, PV Sindhu has been nominated for the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, by the Sports Ministry on Monday. With this, she becomes just the third badminton player, after Pullela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal, to have this honour bestowed upon her.

She is now the second sportsperson, along with cricket icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to have been nominated for the award this year.

#FLASH: Indian shuttler PV Sindhu recommended for Padma Bhushan by Sports Ministry pic.twitter.com/kcjkpUwtED

— ANI (@ANI) September 25, 2017

The shuttler has been in tremendous form over the last year and has been the shining star of Indian badminton ever since her silver medal at the Rio Olympics, where she lost in an intense final against Carolina Marin. Since then, she has gone from strength to strength and earlier this year, she went on an unbeaten run at home that saw her clinch two titles.

She won the Syed Modi International in Lucknow, followed by the India Open Super Series in Delhi in April, after which she jumped to a career-high ranking of World No. 2.

Sindhu then won her third BWF World Championships medal earlier this month, as she reached the final and won the silver medal, going down fighting to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in a fabulous final match.

She then picked up her second Super Series crown of the year with a fine performance at the Korea Open, taking her career tally to three and also avenging her World Championships defeat at the hands of Okuhara in fine fashion.

Sindhu had earlier been awarded the Padma Shri as well in 2015 and after her silver at the Rio Olympics, she received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the nation's highest sporting honour.