PV Sindhu
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The authorship of this page
The Times of India 2013/08/10
The Times of India, May 9, 2015
Manne Ratnakar The Times of India, Oct 19 2015
The Times of India, November 30, 2015
Prasanna Venkatesan, The Hindu December 10, 2015
Early life
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu was born (on July 5, 1995) into a family of volleyball players — her father PV Ramana captained the Indian volleyball team and her mother Vijaya too was a national-level player — Sindhu got attracted to badminton when Gopi won the All England championships in 2001. Though volleyball was what they talked about at home, Sindhu was inspired by Gopi and when she expressed her desire to play badminton her parents encouraged her. Inspired by her iconic mentor, Pullela Gopichand’s exploits on court, she started wielding the racquet at the age of eight.
Since then she has been training at the Pullela Gopichand Academy
Her struggles started once she joined the Gopichand Academy. She lived at the Railway Colony in Secunderabad and had to travel about 40 km everyday to reach the academy at the other end of town. However, Sindhu never missed a session. Realising that travel made her weary, Gopi advised her father to shift home.
Ramana obliged and now it was his turn to travel 40 km to work. But he was confident that under Gopi’s tutelage his daughter would blossom.
Her indomitable spirit has always been the most talked about feature of her game. “The most striking feature of Sindhu’s game is her attitude and never-say-die spirit,” remarked her coach.
Career progression
In 2012 at the London Olympics Sindhu was ranked World No. 25. She broke into the Top 20 in 2012. She attained her highest career ranking of 9 in 2014. In Aug 2016, during the Rio Olympics, she was ranked no. 10 in the world.
2009-10: Early victories
Sindhu justified the faith by winning a bronze at the sub-junior Asian Badminton Championships in 2009. The next year she reached the quarters of the World Junior Championships.
She was a team member of the Indian squad in Uber Cup in 2010.
2012
She won the Asian youth under-19 championship in July 2012.
Sindhu made the world sit up and take notice when she stunned Olympic champion Li Xuerui at the Chinese Masters in Changzhou a month the Chinese superstar became the Olympic champion in 2012.
Sindhu claimed her first major international title by clinching the Malaysian Grand Prix gold in May.
2013/ Dragon slayer, champion beater
She followed up that good work by dethroning world champion Wang Yihan in 2013.
In Sindhu’s case, 2013 turned out to be significant. She won her maiden grand prix gold at the Malaysian Open, created the aforementioned Indian record in the World championships held at Guangzhou and went on to win the first of her hat-trick of titles at the Macau Open.
A reward in the form of Arjuna award was the icing on the cake.
Chinese shuttlers are almost invincible on home turf but Pusarla Venkata Sindhu tamed them twice in Aug 2013 and thrice 2012-13.
The 18-year-old then hit a rough patch but recovered to down reigning Asian Games gold medallist and former All England champion Shixian Wang at the Asian Badminton Championships in April 2013. On Thursday, she dethroned world champ Wang Yihan before extending her career record against Shixian to 2-0 on Friday.
Sindhu has dominated twotime All-England champion Shixian Wang, beating her four times in six meetings (till 2016).
2013: Historic wins and a defeat
Her victory against Shixian in Aug 2013 ensured her a bronze at the Worlds, a feat never achieved by any Indian woman in singles.
Sindhu faced Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the semifinal. Like the Indian, Ratchanok too was 18 and had developed a reputation of being a giantkiller.
Pre- semifinal RANKING: PV Sindhu (Ind): 12 Ratchanok Intanon (Tha): 3
Pre- semifinal Head To Head: 0-1
2014
PV Sindhu reached the semifinal stage of Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the women’s singles competition.
She was given FICCI Breakthrough Sportsperson of the Year in 2014
2015
Sindhu was just nineteen but had already won two bronze medals in the World Championships -afeat no other Indian has been able to manage thus far -and is fast catching up with her illustrious senior, world No. 2 Saina Nehwal.
In 2015 playing at the Denmark Open, Sindhu reached to her maiden final of a Super Series event.
In March 2015, P.V. Sindhu became the youngest recipient of the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour.
2015, Denmark Open: reaches finals, loses
Sindhu falters at final hurdle
Olympic champion Li Xuerui ended the dream run of PV Sindhu 21-19, 21-12 in the final of the Denmark Open Superseries Premier in Odense on Sunday .The 20-year-old Indian failed to stop the resurgent former world No.1 in the 47-minute battle. Sindhu, who demolished three top rankers including the reigning world champion Carolina Marin in the last three days, looked good when she led 16-10 in the first game.
It was here the lanky shuttler committed three net faults allowing Xuerui to make a comeback. The experienced Xuerui seized the opportunity .Sindhu should have varied her attack here. Rather than continuing in the smashing mode, the unseeded Indian should have tried the half smashes. Xuerui, who is the defending champion, first reduced the lead to 13-16 and then with another five-point burst went ahead to 18-17.
At 18-20, Sindhu saved a game point to move to 19-20. It was here Sindhu made the biggest error of the match when she misjudged the line call.
2015: Wins Grand Prix, Macau
PV Sindhu extended her unbeaten reign in Macau and achieved a rare hat-trick at the $120,000 Grand Prix Gold tournament with a convincing 21-19, 2123, 21-14 victory against MinatsuMitani of Japan in the final. The 20-year-old, who lost al most half of 2015 to a heel injury, not only ended her title drought but also brought cheer to the Indian ranks, starved as they have been for titles in the last six months. Sindhu's victory at the former Portuguese colony is the best performance by an Indian shuttler after the twin title triumphs of SainaNehwal and Kidambi Srikanth at the India Open Super series in March 2015.
Interestingly, it was during the period of Macau Open in 2014 that Sindhu had suffered a navicular stress fracture on her left foot. Unfortunately, the injury , which was very difficult to identify , was not diagnosed for about two months. It was during the Nationals at Vijayawada that a scan revealed the fracture.
2016
2016, Sindhu won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women’s singles title.
She registered an Olympics berth after the BWF world rankings were released in May
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu became the first Indian woman to enter an Olympic Badminton final, after defeating 6th-ranked Nozomi Okuhara 2-0 (21-19, 21-10)..
Style
With a methodical style of play, considered to be defensive — building up with long rallies to lay seize to a point as and when an opening arises, she has evolved remarkably well to streamline her method towards winning. When an athlete makes his or her way up the ladder, all keen and purposeful, with built-up character and technical refinement in tow, it is some morale-boosting victories, high on magnitude, that renders them more confident and replete with self-belief.
