PV Sindhu turns 31 with history in sight at the BWF World Championships

PV Sindhu turns 31 on 5 July, a date that also marks World Badminton Day. For a player who has spent more than a decade shaping Indian badminton’s place on the global stage, the coincidence feels particularly fitting.

The Badminton Association of India joined the celebrations by wishing the “Queen of the Court” on her birthday, recognising the legacy and determination that have defined Sindhu’s career.

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👑 Happy Birthday to the Queen of the Court! 🏸

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Celebrating the fierce determination, the unmatched legacy, and the unstoppable spirit of PV Sindhu today.

​👉 Drop your birthday wishes below and tag @Pvsindhu1 let her know we’re cheering for her! 👇 pic.twitter.com/SZcbfteHGE

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 5, 2026

This year’s celebrations come with added significance.

Just weeks from now, Sindhu will return to the BWF World Championships in New Delhi, where she has the opportunity to achieve a feat no women’s singles player has managed before. Already one of only four players to have won five medals at the Championships, another podium finish would make her the most decorated women’s singles player in the tournament’s history.

It is a milestone built on years of consistency rather than a single breakthrough.

Sindhu first announced herself on badminton’s biggest stage in 2013 when, at just 18, she became the first Indian woman to win a singles medal at the World Championships with bronze in Guangzhou. She followed it up with another bronze in Copenhagen a year later, underlining that her success was no one-off performance.

The years that followed tested her resilience as much as her ability.

After claiming Olympic silver at Rio 2016, Sindhu reached successive World Championship finals in 2017 and 2018. The first was a memorable 110-minute battle against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, still regarded as one of the greatest women’s singles matches in the sport’s history, which ended in a narrow three-game defeat. A year later, she again fell one step short, losing to Spain’s Carolina Marin in Nanjing.

Instead of defining her career, those defeats became part of a larger journey.

In Basel in 2019, Sindhu finally climbed the highest step of the podium. Facing Okuhara once again in the final, she produced one of the most dominant title-match performances in World Championships history, winning 21-7, 21-7 in just 38 minutes to become the first Indian to win a World Championships gold medal.

That victory completed a collection of five World Championship medals, two bronze, two silver and one gold, placing her among the most successful women’s singles players the tournament has ever seen.

Now, six years later, another chapter awaits.

India will host the BWF World Championships for the first time in 17 years, giving home fans the chance to watch one of the country’s greatest athletes chase a unique piece of history. A sixth medal would take Sindhu beyond China’s Zhang Ning, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, and China’s Chen Yufei, making her the standalone leader for the most World Championships medals won by a women’s singles player.

Whether that milestone arrives this August or later in her career, Sindhu’s place in badminton history is already secure. Yet elite athletes are remembered for continually finding new ways to challenge themselves.

As she celebrates another birthday, Sindhu heads into another World Championships with history once again within reach.