PV Sindhu stunned second seed Wang Zhi Yi in the Round of 16 of the BWF World Championships, winning 21-19, 21-15 in 48 minutes, with a vintage show of power, reach and movement, as she unleashed her huge wingspan and employed smashes to wrongfoot a top opponent in a throwback to the player Sindhu was at her peak.
She is now one win away from a sixth Worlds medal, her successes coming in her teens, her 20s and now her 30s. After maintaining her 100 per cent track record against Chinese opponents at World Championships, she will now be looking forward to Friday’s match against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani.
Before the 2025 World Championships began, a look at Sindhu’s path to the podium would have had you pause at her Round of 16 match. Wang has been one of the best women’s singles players this year, leading the field in 2025 with 40 wins and only 9 losses.
Sindhu was a massive underdog coming into this game. Even though their head-to-head is an even 2-2, Sindhu has struggled this year with a win-loss record of 9-12. In the year she turned 30, she has had nine first-round exits and looked a shadow of her past formidable self, losing to youngsters. At the same venue last year at the Paris Olympics, she had lost at the same stage to another Chinese player, He Bingjiao.
But this is Sindhu at World Championships. Where she announced herself as an 18-year-old. When she became India’s first world champion after two final losses. Where she has 5 medals – an Indian record. And where, she has this one, incredible record that shows why she is a bonafide legend: she has never lost a completed match against Chinese opponents at the World Championships.
She wasn’t going to now either. On paper, the 15th seed beating the second seed is an upset. A straight games win against the top, in-form Chinese player is admirable. But for it to come in the second half of 2025 against one of the season’s best players with all the command of a champion is what makes it a special effort.
Pusarla V. Sindhu ���� faces up to No.2 seed Wang Zhi Yi ����. #BWFWorldChampionships #Paris2025 pic.twitter.com/8Vmqvglun8
– BWF (@bwfmedia) August 28, 2025
Consider Sindhu’s first two matches before this: in the first match against Bulgarian teenager Kalyona Nalbantova, Sindhu was down at 7-12 and then faced two game points in the first game before sealing a 23-21, 21-6 victory. That scoreline says more about Sindhu’s slow start and diminished speed more than the Bulgarian’s experience.
In the second round against WR 40 Malaysian Letshanaa Karupathevan, she was 12-18 down in the first game before winning 21-19, 21-15. To overcome that deficit and win in straight games needed a solid mental and physical effort. But the Sindhu that came on court in the third round against the world No 2 felt like a different player.
She was on the attack from the onset, racing to an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval with a crafty mix of sharp smashes and close-in winners. Wang fought back and levelled at 19-19. Now this became a test of nerves as much as skill, which Sindhu has struggled with a lot lately. But this once, she came on top with a composed show forcing Wang under pressure.
In the second game, Sindhu kept up the pressure, once again opening up an 11-6 lead. Wang once again drew level and pushed Sindhu, with a stunning 57-shot rally ending in an error from the Indian. Such long rallies have once again has been a pitfall for Sindhu lately, but once against she prevailed to make it with five match points with relative ease.
It was a different Sindhu to what we’ve seen at big events in 2025 and it has raised expectations once again from Indian badminton’s superstar.
Sindhu will next play Wardani in the quarterfinals, who beat Japanese rising star Tomoka Miyazaki in the Round of 16. The Indian and Indonesian are tied in their head-to-head 2-2, with Wardani winning their latest meeting earlier this year.
The key now will be rest and recovery after playing back-to-back days. If Sindhu’s shots come out firing like they did today, there is no reason not to believe in one more World Championship medal. As we wrote on these pages before, a sixth medal at 30 years of age? What a story that can be!
