Sydney : Indian badminton player P.V. Sindhu crashes out in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Badminton after losing to Chinese-born American badminton player Beiwen Zhang 21-12, 21-17.
P.V. Sindhu is currently ranked World No. 17 and Beiwen Zhang is ranked World No. 12.
Before reaching the quarter-final of the tournament, in the Round of 32, Sindhu defeated Ashmita Chaliha 21-18, 21-13. In the Round of 16, she got the better of Aakarshi Kashyap beating her 21-14, 21-10.
Sindhu has won medals at various tournaments such as the Olympics and on the BWF circuit, including a gold at the 2019 World Championships. She is the first and only Indian to become the badminton world champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games. She rose to a career-high world ranking of no. 2 in April 2017.
She represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics (Rio), where she became the first Indian badminton player to reach the Olympic final. She won the silver medal after losing out to Spain's Carolina Marin. She made her second consecutive Olympic appearance at the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo) and won a bronze medal, becoming the first-ever Indian woman to win two Olympic medals.
She is a recipient of the sports honours Arjuna Award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, as well as India's fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, and third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan. (ANI)
