The character arc of P. V. Sindhu
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 5 July 1995 in India. Between then and now sit a place in the world top twenty in September 2012 at the age of seventeen, a first superseries title in 2016, the first Olympic badminton final ever reached by an Indian player and the silver medal that came with losing it, a career high ranking of world number two in April 2017, a season finale title in 2018 no other Indian has won, a world championship in which she became the first and only Indian champion, five world championship medals, and an Olympic bronze in Tokyo. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is P. V. Sindhu?
She got to the final first. Then she lost it, and went again.
She broke into the top twenty of the world badminton rankings in September 2012, at seventeen, which for an Indian player in a sport dominated by China, Indonesia and Denmark was already an unusual place to be.
In 2016 she won her first superseries title at the China Open, and then went to the Rio Olympics and became the first Indian badminton player ever to reach an Olympic final. She lost it to Carolina Marin of Spain and took the silver. That is the hinge of the page: the first person from a country of well over a billion people to get that far in the sport, and she got there and did not win.
What followed is what makes her worth drawing. Four more finals in 2017, with titles in South Korea and India. A career high ranking of world number two in April 2017. The BWF World Tour Finals in 2018, and she remains the only Indian player ever to win a season finale title.
And then the thing nobody from her country had done: she became the first and only Indian to be badminton world champion. She has five medals at the World Championships in total, and is only the second woman ever, after Zhang Ning of China, to win five or more singles medals there.
At the Tokyo Olympics she made a second consecutive Games and won bronze, becoming the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals and only the second individual from India to win two consecutively. She is a Commonwealth Games champion with three consecutive singles medals there, an Asian Games silver medallist and a two-time Uber Cup bronze medallist, and she has appeared on the Forbes list of the highest-paid female athletes six times.
The moments
P. V. Sindhu's timeline.
The 1990s
Born in India
Everyday. India, 1995.
The 2010s
Top twenty at seventeen
Milestone, and it changed everything. Seventeen, and inside the world top twenty.
The first Indian in the final
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nobody from her country had ever got that far.
She loses it
Setback, and it changed everything. The biggest match her country had played, and she lost it.
Settle for the silver, or chase the rest
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go after everything else, taken, or take the silver as the peak. World number two, the only Indian season finale title, the first Indian world championship, and a second Olympic medal.
Her first superseries title
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A first big title, in China.
World number two
Milestone, and it changed everything. Second in the world, eight months after the final.
Four finals, two titles
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Four finals in a year, and two of them won.
The only Indian to win it
Milestone, and it changed everything. Still the only Indian ever to win the season finale.
World champion
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first and only Indian world champion in the sport.
Five world medals
Milestone, and it changed everything. Five world medals, which only one other woman has ever managed.
The 2020s
Bronze in Tokyo
Milestone, and it changed everything. First Indian woman with two Olympic medals.
Commonwealth champion
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Three Commonwealth medals in a row, and the title.
Six times on the Forbes list
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Six appearances on the highest paid list.
She is still the only Indian ever to be badminton world champion and the only one to win a season finale. What she set moving is the useful half of a famous defeat, which is that the first Indian ever to reach that final lost it and then went out and collected everything else.
Your turn
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Hers has the loss in the middle of it, in the biggest match anybody from her country had ever played. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
P. V. Sindhu: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is P. V. Sindhu's character arc?
Did P. V. Sindhu win an Olympic medal?
Is P. V. Sindhu a world champion?
What is the highest ranking of P. V. Sindhu?
What else has P. V. Sindhu won?
Is P. V. Sindhu one of the highest-paid athletes?
Where does this timeline of P. V. Sindhu's life come from?
More character arcs
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Sources
- P. V. Sindhu, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Her BWF World Championships and World Tour record.
- Her Olympic results from Rio in 2016 and Tokyo.
- The Forbes lists of highest-paid female athletes, 2018 to 2024.