To Never Giving Up- PV Sindhu

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is a young Indian professional badminton player who hails from Hyderabad. Born on 5th July 1995, Sindhu has achieved various feats and gained prominence at quite a young age. Her journey in badminton can be termed magical as well as a source of inspiration for the budding talents in the field.

Early Life

P.V. Sindhu’s parents P.V. Ramana and P. Vijaya were professional voleyball players, with Ramana being a Arjuna awardee for his sport. But Sindhu aspired to be a badminton player, drawing inspiration from the legendary Indian badminton player P. Gopichand who was the winner of 2001 All England Championship. Sindhu started quite young at the age of eight. Sindhu similar to Saina and Jwala  commenced her badminton training under the tutelage of revered coach Mehboob Ali at Scendurabad. Later Sindhu joined the prestigious Gopichand Badminton Academy to train and edify her skills under the guidance of P. Gopichand.

Early Career (National Junior level)

There was a significant improvement in Sindhu’s game after joining Gopichand’s badminton academy. At junior level Sindhu won the 5th Servo All India Ranking Championship in the doubles category of U-10 age group. She also won the singles title at the Ambuja cement All India ranking. Similarly, she outshined at various junior level tournaments with notable being the winner of the singles title (U-13 Category) at the sub-juniors held in Pondicherry; doubles title at the Krishna Khaitan All India Tournament and the U-14 team gold medal at the 51st National School games in India.

Youth Career (International)

• In 2009, Sindhu bagged medal at the International level by being a bronze medallist at the sub-junior Asian Badminton Championship which was held in Colombo.
• Sindhu then went on to win Silver medal in the singles event of 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge.
• Sindhu also managed to reach the quarterfinals of the 2010 junior world Badminton Championship held in Mexico.
• However, the turning point of her career would undoubtedly be, being the gold medallist in the girls singles at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games staged in the Isle of Man.
• On 7 July 2012, Sindhu emerged as the winner of Asia Youth U-19 championship.

Timeline of Sindhu’s incredible journey

(2012)

• In September, Sindhu made a major upset in Li Ning China Masters Super Series tournament by outcasting London Olympics gold medallist Li Xuerui 21-19, 9-21, 21-16 to enter into the semi-finals where she lost to Jiang Yanjiao of China.
• In October, the 77th Senior National Badminton Championship was held at Srinagar, where Sindhu reached up to the finals. However, she was defeated by Sayali Gokhale in the finals.
• In December 2012, Sindhu finished as a runner-up in the Syed Modi India Grand Prix Gold event held in Lucknow where she was defeated by Weni Fanetri of Indonesia by 21-15, 18-21, 21-18.

(2013)

• Year 2013, proved to be remarkable in the career of Sindhu as in May 2013, she won the singles title at Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold, defeating Gu Juan of Singapore by 21-17, 17-21, 21-19
• In August 2013, Sindhu at the age of 18 bagged the bronze medal at the BWF World championships, thus becoming the first Indian women badminton player to win a medal in the single’s event at the world championships.
• In 2013, Indian Badminton league, under the captainship of Sindhu, team Awadhe Warriors reached the finals of the tournament where they were defeated by Hyderabad Hotshots.
• In (Nov-Dec) Sindhu went on to win Macau Open Grand Prix Gold title, defeating Michelle Li of Canada by 21-15, 21-12 in just 37 minutes.

(2014)

• In the year 2014, Sindhu won the bronze medal at the 2014 Common Wealth games held in Glasgow by defeating Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia in the straight sets of 23-21, 21-9.
• In August 2014, PV Sindhu won another bronze medal in BWF world championships held in Denmark, thus becoming the first Indian to have won two back to back medals in the BWF World Championships.

(2015)

• In October 2015, Sindhu reached the finals of the Denmark Open, defeating stalwarts of the game Tai Tzu-Ying, Wang Yihan and Carolina Marin on the way. Although, she lost to the defending champion Li Xuevri of China by 19-21, 12-21.
• In November 2015, P.V. Sindhu won the women’s single title at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold, defeating Japan’s Minatsu Mitani by 21-9, 21-23, 21-14 in the finals.

(2016)

• In January 2016, Sindhu won yet another women’s single title – Malaysia Master Grand Prix Gold, defeating Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland by straight sets of 21-15, 21-9.
• Sindhu also captained the team ‘Chennai Smashers’ in the 2016 Premier Badminton League, while the team won all its five league matches to qualify for the semi-final, in the semi-finals they were defeated by by Delhi Acers.

Rio Olympics 2016

After all these years of heroics, it was ultimately her performance at the Rio Olympics 2016 that made her an overnight sensation and a household name. In Rio 2016, P.V. Sindhu made her way up to the finals along with the top seed from Spain Carolina Marin. She was eventually defeated by the world No. 1 by 21-19, 19-21,21-15 but her grit and efforts were applauded nationwide.

Achievements

• In 2013, P.V. Sindhu was awarded with Arjuna award, by the govt. of India.
• In 2014, Sindhu received the FICCI Breakthrough Sportsperson of the year award and was also nominated as NDTV Indian of the year.
• In the year 2015, P.V. Sindhu was awarded Padam Shri – India’s fourth highest civilian honour.
• In 2016, she was feciliated with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award – the highest sporting honour in India.