PV Sindhu becomes the badminton World No 2 player
India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu reached the badminton World No 2 ranking, after her recent performances. The Rio Olympic silver medallist moved from fifth to second position at the heels of her recent victory at the India Open Superseries, where she beat Carolina Marin to the title. Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei retained her ranking as the World No 1.
PV Sindhu, badminton debut
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu was born on 5 July 1995, in Hyderabad. She comes from a family of volleyball players and was inspired by former All England champion Pullela Gopichand to play badminton. Sindhu began playing badminton at the age of 8 and came into international spotlight as a 17-year-old after breaking into the world top 20 rankings in Sep 2012.
Gopichand as the coach
Sindhu first began training with Mehboob Ali in 2004 and in 2008 she went on to coach with Pullela Gopichand, the current national coach of Indian badminton team, and has been under his mentorship ever since.
The first big victory and subsequent run
Sindhu won her first major by winning the 2013 Malaysian Open, marking her first Grand Prix Gold victory. In the same year, she became India's first medallist (Bronze in Women's Singles) at BWF World Championships. Her three subsequent victories came at Macau Open (2013-15), a Grand Prix Gold event. In 2014, Sindhu was the Semi-finalist (bronze) of Glasgow Commonwealth games.
2016, the best year of career thus far
For Sindhu, 2016 began with a win at Malaysia Masters in January. Later in the year, she scripted history by winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics. She was defeated by Spain's Carolina Marin in the final. She is the first Indian woman to win a silver at Olympics. In Nov 2016, Sindhu won the China Open, her maiden Super Series premier title.
International badminton tournament hierarchy
Keeping aside the Olympics, and World Championships, at international level, Superseries Premier tournaments (5) are the most prestigious, followed by Superseries (7), Grand Prix Gold (14), Grand Prix events (6), and International Challenge. Sindhu won 1 Superseries Premier, 1 Superseries, and 6 Grand Prix Gold.
