Player Profile: PV Sindhu (IND)
Seventh-ranked PV Sindhu is one of the five world champions in the top ten of the BWF World Rankings. Standing at 179cm, the native of Hyderabad has been a thorn to the opposing shuttlers with her height which enabled her to do absolutely anything on the court.
Achievements of one of India’s successful badminton players
A pupil of the fabled Pullela Gopichand, Sindhu won the first of her 16 career tour titles in 2010, yet success had eluded her in the major tournaments where she often fell at the final hurdle despite her peak ranking at number two.
In the 2016 Olympics, she settled for the silver after losing a classic final to then-two-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain. Then, she finished runners-up to Nozomi Okuhara and Marin in successive World Championships, before finally claiming the gold in Basel in 2019 when she dominated the Japanese in a one-sided final.
PV Sindhu was one of the leading ladies of India’s badminton renaissance alongside former world number one Saina Nehwal, where she delivered a pair of semifinal appearances in the 2014 and 2016 editions of the Uber Cup. And despite missing out on the next two editions, she hopes to get over the hump when it returns to Bangkok in 2022.