Badminton Year-Ender: Top 5 shuttlers of the 2018 season

#3 PV Sindhu

Consistency was the keyword for Indian badminton darling PV Sindhu in 2018. She made it to the finals of five tournaments, two of which were the prestigious Asian Games and the World Championships. But where she lacked in was the push needed to cross the final hurdles in all these big events.

The stumble became so synonymous with Sindhu that she even received an unenviable epithet -- Silver Sindhu.

She changed all that in the very last tournament of the year through a display that not only established her as the Golden Girl but also helped her to silence her detractors once and for all. Gritty, resilient, spirited, fast -- Sindhu was everything at the BWF World Tour Finals that she wasn’t at any other tournament for the rest of the year.

Most importantly, she was brimming with self-belief even when the chips looked down. That is exactly what aided in her turnaround against Tai Tzu Ying and gave the Indian her first win over the World No. 1 since the Rio Olympics.

Sindhu did not lose a game from thereon and demolished World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi, World No. 8 Ratchanok Intanon and World No. 5 Nozomi Okuhara en route to the biggest title win of her career.

Considering the way she finished the year, all Indian badminton enthusiasts would be eagerly waiting to see if she can pick up from there in 2019.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Sripad