PV SINDHU's Passion and #arjunaaward #padmshri #civilianawardofindia #rajivgandhikhelratnaaward

Sin9–21, 10–21. This was her fourth medal at the World Championships in total.[98] Sindhu was seeded third in the 2018 Asian Games. In the first round, she defeated Vietnamese Vu Thi Trang in 3 games 21–10, 12–21, 23–21 in a very close encounter. She then faced Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and beat her with a 21–12, 21–15 scoreline. She then had to battle to get past Thai Nitchaon Jindapol in the quarterfinal in three games. In the semifinal, she defeated second seed Akane Yamaguchi to enter the final round. Though she lost to top seed Tai Tzu-ying in the final, she won a historic first silver medal for India in badminton.[99] Sindhu qualified for the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals at the end of the year. In the group stage, she defeated defending champion Akane Yamaguchi (2–0), top s Zhang (2–0reach her second consecutive final at the tournament.[100] In the final, she defeated her arch-rival Nozomi Okuhara 21–19, 21–17, becoming the only shuttler from India to claim the title at the year-end finale.[101] 2019–20 Sindhu inside the cockpit of HAL Tejas at Yelahanka AFS, Bangalore llion). This led to her having a new racket and equipment to which she had to get used to within 2–3 weeks, to debut it at the prestigious All England Badminton Championships.[105] She reached her first final of the season in the Indonesia Open, where she lost to Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 15–21, 16–21.[106] At the 2019 World Championships, Sindhu was seeded fifth. She opened her campaign with comfortable straight-game victories over Pai Yu-po and ninth seed Beiwen Zhang in successive rounds. She impressed everyone with her victory over second seed Tai Tzu-ying in the quarterfinals. She defeated Tai, coming from a game down 12–21, 23–21, 21–19 to make the semi-final and secure a fifth World Championship medal, the joint-most in the history of women's singles badminton.[107] In the semi-final, she defeated third seed Chen Yufei in straight games in dominating fashion, 21–7, 21–14, to enter her third consecutive World Championships final.[108] In the final against Nozomi Okuhara, she put up a near-flawless display to win 21–7, 21–7. In the process, she became the first Indian to win gold at the World Championships.[109] Despite her ranking as 15th on the World Tour, Sindhu got a wild card entry into the 2019 BWF World Tour Finals because of her World Championship victory in August.[110] She competed in the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou as the defending champion but failed to reach the knockout phase after losing to Chen Yufei (1–2) and Akane Yamaguchi (1–2) in successive rounds. She finished off as third in the group after defeating He Bingjiao 21–19, 21–19 in her last match.[111] She was named the BBC Indian Sportswoman of Year on 8 March 2020.[112] In April, she was elected as one of the ambassadors of the BWF Committee's campaign – "I am Badminton" to promote clean and fair play in the sport.[113] 2021 Sindhu, reaching her first final in over 18 months at the 2021 Swiss Open, suffered a demoralising defeat against Carolina Marín, losing 12–21, 5–21.[114] She was then stunned by Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the semi-final of the All England Open, losing out 17–21, 9–21.[115] In May, she was elected as one of the two ambassadors from badminton in the International Olympic Committee's campaign ‘Believe in Sport’, aimed at preventing competition manipulation in the sport.[116] Sindhu was seeded sixth at the Tokyo Olympic Games. She won both of her group matches against Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova[117] and Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi[118] to progress towards the knockout stage. She defeated Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt comfortably in the Round of 16 and reached the quarterfinals.[119] She put up a dominating display to outmanoeuvre fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21–13, 22–20, placing herself in the last four stage, also becoming the only Indian shuttler to reach two consecutive Olympic semi-finals.[120] Her opponent for the semi-final was second seed Tai Tzu-ying. Sindhu, who was yet to drop a game in the tournament, fell against Taiwan's Tai in two straight games 18–21, 12–21.[121] She later beat eighth seed He Bingjiao of China in the playoff to clinch the bronze medal, thereby becoming the first Indian woman and only the fourth player in women's singles badminton to claim two medals at two consecutive Olympic games.[122] At the 2021 BWF World Championships, where she competed as the defending champion, Sindhu was seeded sixth. She eased past Slovakia's Martina Repiská in her opening encounter in straight games. She then defeated ninth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong 21–14, 21–18 in another straight-game encounter to make the quarterfinals.[123] However, in the quarterfinals, she went down to top seed Tai Tzu-ying 17–21, 13–21, failing to medal at the World Championships for only the second time in her career.[124] 2