For P.V. Sindhu, 2017 has proved to be an excellent year. With back to back wins at tournaments across the world, she currently holds the 2nd position in Badminton World Federation's rankings (Women's Singles) and it won't be wrong to say that this 22 year old woman has taken the world by storm. 

Adding to her list of achievements, she has now been recommended by the Sports Ministry for India's third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.

#FLASH: Indian shuttler PV Sindhu recommended for Padma Bhushan by Sports Ministry pic.twitter.com/kcjkpUwtED

After BCCI nominated the former Indian Cricket Team skipper MS Dhoni, Sindhu has now become the second athlete to be nominated for the award this year and expectedly, is ecstatic about the same. In an interview she expressed her gratitude and said, “Very happy that my name has been recommended for Padma Bhushan. I would like to thank the government and the sports ministry.”

The news comes right after this Hyderabadi shuttler became the first Indian to win the Korea Open Super Series where she defeated Nozomi Okuhara and jumped to the second spot in the Badminton World Federation women's singles rankings for the second time in her career.

Her hard work has been recognized by the Sports Ministry in the past as well as this young sportswoman has been conferred with quite a few awards, namely - the Arjuna Award for badminton in 2013, Padma Shri Award in 2015, which happens to be the fourth highest civilian honor in India and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for Badminton in 2016.

© Twitter

Sindhu, who started playing the sport at the age of 8, has managed to make a mark for herself. The turning point for her career however was when at the 2016 Summer Olympics; she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal as she went down fighting against Carolina Marin in the gold medal match. Since that, she has been simply unstoppable.

She is one of the two Indian badminton players to ever win an Olympic medal – other being Saina Nehwal. She was also a silver medalist at the 2017 BWF World Championships.

© Twitter/Prasar Bharati

Apart from the laurels that she has earned for the country, P.V. Sindhu makes time for contributing to the development of sports in the country. She was with Bharat Petroleum since July 2013, as an assistant sports manager but after her big win at the Rio Olympics, she was promoted to deputy sports manager. Apart from being a sports manager, she has also been appointed as a Deputy Collector (Group-I) by the Andhra Pradesh Government. 

With this latest addition to her long list of awards, Sindhu has joined Saina Nehwal and national team coach, Pullela Gopichand to become the third shuttler to be awarded the Padma Bhushan award.