25th August 2019 would go down in history as one of the most glorious days in Indian sports. For the first time ever, an Indian was crowned the world champion in the sport of badminton. Pusarla Venkata Sindhu won her third final of the World Championship of the sport. While the entire nation would be exulting with joy along with the 24-year old lady from Hyderabad, she herself didn't forget her roots and didn't forget to mention her patriotic feelings on the occasion.
In the post-match interview, the newly-crowned queen of world badminton said: "I am proud to be an Indian." Her comments were responded to by the Indian contingent in the crowd with great cheers. But that wasn't the only statement she made which eschewed a beautiful emotion.
The champion shuttler also thanked her parents and revealed that today is her mother's birthday and decided to dedicate this victory to her.
But the most touching moment of the evening came when the Indian national anthem was played and the Indian flag rose highest among all on the wall. Sindhu was visibly moved and her eyes were clearly moist as the tunes of Jana Gana Mana were played in the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland.
This was Sindhu's third appearance in the final of the BWF World Championships. This event has brought a rich haul of medals for the Indian shuttler. She first achieved success here in 2013 by winning the bronze medal. The feat was repeated by her the next year.
In 2017, Sindhu reached the finals and played one of the greatest matches every contested in women's singles badminton. In that epic fight, she was up against the same opponent that she vanquished today – Nozomi Okuhara. Unfortunately for the Indian, she narrowly missed winning the title.
In 2018, Sindhu was up against the same opponent who defeated her in the 2016 Rio Olympics final, Carolina Marin. The Spaniard was again the victor.
But this year, Sindhu was determined, focussed and armed with a deadly smash that both Chen Yufei, her opponent in the semis, and Okuhara got crushed by. This victory would taste even sweeter for Pusarla as she was out of form earlier in the year and had suffered some bad losses in BWF World Tour events.
But her form started to return in time as she reached the finals of the Indonesia Open where she lost to Akane Yamaguchi. But it was clear that Sindhu was regaining her form. Finally, she won the coveted title that had eluded India for decades.
