Given her form and results the rest of the year, the prospect of PV Sindhu winning a miraculous sixth World Championships medal seemed bleak before the stars descended in Paris at the very venue of the Olympic Games last year. But Sindhu, being Sindhu, made it appear genuinely within reach. Wang Zhi Yi – the world’s second-best shuttler of 2025 behind only the indomitable An Seyoung – faced the wrath that so many legendary names from China have faced in the past.
More often than not in her glorious career, Sindhu has brought her A-game to major events, and it just goes up a notch or two against Chinese shuttlers at the World Championships. Wang was dismantled in straight games in the round of 16 in a performance that took Indian badminton fans back to 2019 – Sindhu being at her blistering best.
But in the quarterfinal, against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani, the sixth medal slipped away from right under her nose. The Indian fought back from a game down to push Wardani to the distance. But the 23-year-old just had a bit more fuel in her tank in the deciding third game. It wasn’t for a lack of fight from Sindhu, though, as she didn’t do much wrong from her side. In fact, at 16-17 in the third game, she could see the finish line. But Wardani triggered a crucial run of four points to break the Indian’s heart. A point here or there might well have been the difference in the endgame, where Sindhu often matched the youngster’s energy in prolonged rallies.
Having won five World Championships medals, including the coveted gold in 2019, Sindhu doesn’t need another to stamp her legacy on the tournament. But a sixth medal would have put her in a league of her own. It wasn’t to be.
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