PV Sindhu Loses Quarterfinal Clash to Putri Wardani: India’s star shuttler PV Sindhu bowed out of the BWF World Championships 2025 after a hard-fought battle against Indonesia’s Putri Wardani in the women’s singles quarterfinals.
The 30-year-old lost 14-21, 21-13, 16-21 in a match that had plenty of ups and downs.
PV Sindhu, currently ranked 15th, dropped the opening game 14-21 but stormed back with a strong 21-13 win in the second, setting up a tense decider. The final game stayed close, but Wardani – ranked higher -held her nerve and finished on top.
Putri Wardani Secures First World Championships Medal
The victory means Wardani has already secured a medal and will next face Japan’s world no. 5 Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinals on Saturday.
Interestingly, Wardani had beaten PV Sindhu earlier this year at the Sudirman Cup, though the Indian had gotten the better of her in the 2022 Asian Games. This latest win gives the 23-year-old her first medal at the World Championships.
PV Sindhu vs Putri Wardani: How the Match Unfolded
Wardani started sharp in the opening game, using smart angles and powerful smashes to keep Sindhu on the defensive. After an even start at 3-3, errors from PV Sindhu let the Indonesian pull ahead 11-7 at the break. She soon extended her lead to 18-9, with Sindhu struggling to keep the shuttle in play. The game ended 21-14 when Sindhu hit wide with a broken string.
PV Sindhu bounced back in the second game, tightening up her net play and finding her rhythm with the smashes. She built a commanding 16-6 lead before closing it out 21-13 with a superb cross-court winner.
The decider was packed with drama. PV Sindhu trailed 0-3 early but fought back with aggressive returns, making it 3-3. At 5-4, she forced an error from Wardani, and soon after, the two battled through a thrilling 59-shot rally, which Sindhu won when Wardani finally netted. Sindhu even pulled off a clever push over Wardani’s head, but the Indonesian struck back with a smash to level 7-7.
The game kept swinging back and forth. PV Sindhu smashed cross-court to tie 8-8, while Wardani’s precise lobs and front-court winners gave her a 11-9 lead at the break. After the interval, PV Sindhu grabbed a point with a spinning net shot, but Wardani responded with clean placements and stretched her lead to 15-11. Sindhu closed in again at 15-16, but a body smash and a backline misjudgment pushed Wardani back ahead. With Sindhu netting at a crucial stage, Wardani earned four match points and wrapped it up when Sindhu hit wide.
PV Sindhu’s Glorious World Championships Journey
For Sindhu, this marks the end of another memorable Worlds campaign. The Hyderabad ace first won a bronze in 2013 at Guangzhou, added another in Copenhagen in 2014, finished runner-up in Glasgow (2017) and Nanjing (2018), and made history with her golden run in Basel in 2019.
She’s also the only Indian to win Olympic medals at back-to-back Games – silver in Rio 2016 and bronze in Tokyo 2020. But since her 2022 Commonwealth Games triumph, things haven’t been smooth. Her last major title was the Singapore Open that year, and injuries, dips in form, and frequent coaching changes have all disrupted her momentum. Even at the Paris Olympics, her quest for a third medal ended sooner than she had hoped.
What Lies Ahead for PV Sindhu
Now training under Indonesian coach Muhammad Irwansyah, Sindhu is still working to rediscover consistency on the tour.
Earlier in the tournament, she gave fans plenty to cheer about by defeating world no. 2 Wang Zhi Yi of China in the pre-quarterfinals. That match took 48 minutes, with Sindhu winning 21-19, 21-15 to take a 3-2 lead in their head-to-head record. She also continued her strong history against Chinese players at the Worlds, having previously beaten Wang Yihan (2013), Wang Shixian (2014), Li Xuerui (2015), Sun Yu (2017), and Chen Yufei (2017 and 2019).
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