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MEDAL WINNERS FROM INDIA

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 10/15/2019 10:58:18 AM

Pusarla Ve nkata Sindhu

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu (born 5 July 1995) is an Indian professional badminton player. Having made her international debut in 2009, she rose to a career high ranking of no. 2 in April 2017. Over the course of her career, Pusarla has won medals at numerous tournaments on the BWF circuit including a gold at the 2019 World Championships. Pusarla came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17. Beginning in 2013, Pusarla won a medal at every world championships, with the exception of 2015. She is just the second woman after Zhang Ning to win five or more medals at the world championships. Pusarla represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach a final. She won the silver medal after losing out to Spain's Carolina Marin. Pusarla won her first superseries title at the 2016 China Open and followed it up with four more finals in 2017, winning the titles in Korea and India. In addition to that, she has won a silver medal each at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games, and two bronze medals at the Uber Cup. With earnings of US$8.5 and $5.5 million respectively, Pusarla made the Forbes' list of Highest- Paid Female Athletes in 2018 and 2019. She is the recipient of the sports honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, and India's fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri. Early life and training Pusarla Venkata Sindhu was born in Hyderabad to P. V. Ramana and P. Vijaya. Both her parents have been national level volleyball players. Her father, Ramana, who was a member of the Indian volleyball team that won the bronze medal in 1986 Seoul Asian Games, received the Arjuna Award in 2000 for his contribution to the sports. She has an elder sister, Dr. P. V. Divya, who was a nationallevel handball player. However, she was not interested in pursuing professional sports and became a doctor. Pusarla lives in Hyderabad. Though her parents played professional volleyball, Pusarla chose badminton over it because she drew inspiration from the success of Pullela Gopichand, the 2001 All England Open Badminton Champion. She eventually started playing badminton from the age of eight. Pusarla first learned the basics of the sport with the guidance of Mehboob Ali at the badminton courts of Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering.