Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian Badminton Player born on 5th July 1995. She hails from Hyderabad, Telangana. She has been presenting India since 2009 in Singles and Doubles categories. As of March 2021, she is ranked 7th in women’s world ranking.
PV Sindhu was born to P.V Raman and P. Vijaya. She comes from a family of sports, where both her parents are erstwhile national-level volleyball players. She also has an elder sister P.V. Divya.
Sindhu picked up interest in Badminton after she was galvanized by the success of Pullela Gopichand. At the age of 8, she acquired basic badminton lessons from unsung badminton hero Mir Mahboob Ali. Sindhu used to attend his training at his badminton academy at the Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications in Sucerdaband. Unfortunately, her coach Mir Mahboob Ali passed away in 2011.
Sooner than later, after Mir Mahboob Ali’s demise, Sindhu joined the Gopichand Badminton Academy, where she received training and mastered her game under her inspiration Pullela Gopichand. She had shown immense dedication towards badminton and traveled 56 kilometers every day from home to the academy. Under the tutelage of Gopichand, her badminton career blossomed.
PV Sindhu got her career breakthrough in 2008 when she won the Gold medal in the U-14 category in National School Games. She made her international debut at the 2009 Asian Sub-Junior Badminton Championships in Colombo, where she won the Bronze medal.
Sindhu won her first international senior title at Malaysian International in 2011. In 2012, she finished as Runner-Up at the Senior National Badminton Championships at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2014, she won the Silver medal after losing to Saina Nehwal at the Indian Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow. At the 2016 South Asian Games, she won the Gold and Bronze in Women’s Team and Singles respectively at Guwahati.
In 2017, she won the Syed Modi International title and later the Indian Open Series title by defeating Carolina Marin.
PV Sindhu received a breakthrough in her career in 2010 when she competed and reached the quarterfinals of the World Junior Badminton Championships. In 2011, she won the Gold medal in Girls Singles at the Commonwealth Youth Games, followed by two Bronze medals in Girls Singles and Mixed Team at the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Lucknow.
In 2012, Sindhu made her All England Championships debut via qualifying rounds but lost to Tza Tu-Ting in the 1st round. In July, she clinched the Gold medal at the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Gimcheon, South Korea. Later, she defeated the 2012 Olympics Gold-Medalist Li Xueria in the quarterfinals before going down to Jiang Yanjiao in the semi-final at the China Open.
Sindhu won her first Grand Prix Gold title at the Malaysian Open in 2013. That year, she competed in her debut World Badminton Championships, where she won the Bronze medal and became the 2nd Indian to win a medal in singles at the World Badminton Championships.
In 2014, she won her first Asian Badminton Championships medal by winning Bronze in Gimcheon. Subsequently, she won the Bronze medal in Women’s singles at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a Bronze in Women’s team event at the Asian Games. In that year, Sindhu became the 1st Indian badminton player to win two consecutive World Championships medals by winning the Bronze again.
In 2016, Sindhu hit the national headlines by becoming the first woman Olympic Silver-Medalist at the Rio Olympics. Later in November, she won the China Open title and finished as Runner-Up at the Hong Kong Open.
In 2017, she won the Silver medal at the World Badminton Championships, which she won again in the 2018 edition of the tournament. That year, she became the Runner-Up at the Dubai World Superseries Finals.
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she won Gold and Silver in Women’s Team and Singles respectively in Glasgow. That year, she won the Silver medal in Women’s Singles at the Jakarta Asian Games.
In 2019, Sindhu created history by becoming the 1st Indian to be World Badminton Champion at the World Badminton Championships in Basel.
Sindhu is now eyeing the Olympics berth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
