What a year it has been for the Indian badminton emerging star Pusarla Venkata Sindhu!
The young star made it to her maiden Super Series Final at Denmark, quarters at the World Championships, won the title at the Macau Grand Prix Gold Title for the third straight time and biggest of all, was conferred India’s 4th highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri – all this at the tender age of 20.
Here are the 10 things which will help you to know her better:
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- PV Sindhu was born in a sporting family to Mr. P. V. Ramana and Mrs. P. Vijaya on 5th July 1995. With both his father and mother being former volleyball players, PV Sindhu took to sports at a very early age. Her father, Mr. Ramana was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2001 for the contribution he made to the game of volleyball.
- Though her parents played professional volleyball, Sindhu chose badminton over it as she drew inspiration from the success of Pullela Gopichand’s triumph at 2001 All England Open Badminton Championship and started with her badminton coaching at an early age of 8.
3. Soon after she began training, Sindhu joined former Indian international Pullela Gopichand’s badminton coaching academy in Hyderabad and used to travel 56 kilometres daily one way to reach to her training facility. Despite this, she was never late for training; a reflection of her willingness to complete her desire to be a good badminton player with the required hard work and commitment.
- After joining Gopichand’s academy, Sindhu collected many accolades on the national circuit. In the U-10 category, she won the 5th Servo All India ranking championship in the doubles category and the singles title at the Ambuja Cement All India ranking and in the U-14 category, following which she went on to win the gold medal at the 51st National School Games.
- PV Sindhu made her mark at the international stage at a very early point in her career, In 2012, She stunned 2012 London Olympics Gold Medalist winner Li Xuerui, beating her 21–19, 9–21, 21–16 to enter the semifinals, where she eventually lost to 4th seeded Chinese international Jiang Yanjiao.
- In 2013, she went on to win her maiden Grand Prix Gold title as she defeated Singapore’s Juan Gu 21–17,17–21,21–19 in the finals of the Malaysian Open. In the same year, she stunned the defending champion second-seeded Chinese international Wang Yihan 21–18, 23–21 on her way to becoming India's first medalist in women's singles at the World Championships.
- In 2014, she reached the semi-finals of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the women’s singles category. In the same year, she reached the semi-final stage of the World Cup in Denmark, she defeated 2nd ranked Shixian Wang in three gruelling sets 19-21, 21-19, 21-15 in the quarter-finals.
- In 2015, the 20-year old went on to defeat the world number two All-England champion, arguably the toughest Women’s Singles player on the current circuit – Carolina Marin 21-15 18-21 21-17 at Denmark Open Series. Sindhu ultimately went down to Li Xuerui in the finals.
- In the same year, the two-time defending champion P V Sindhu won her third successive women’s singles title at the $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold after defeating Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the finals.
- The 20-year old was bought by Chennai-based franchise the Chennai Smashers for a price of US$94,000 in the recently concluded Premier Badminton League auction. That bid made her the 3rd most expensive player bought in the Premier Badminton League behind Malaysian ace Lee Chong Wei and India’s Saina Nehwal.
