Saina Nehwal (Born on 17 March 1990 in Hissar, Haryana) is an Indian professional badminton singles player. Saina won gold medal in 2018 Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Australia. Saina became the first Indian to win 2 singles gold in commonwealth games. Saina Nehwal is the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal. Saina has represented India three times in the Olympics, winning bronze medal in her second appearance. Saina has achieved several milestones in badminton for India.
Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal made history on June 21, 2009, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Wang Lin in Jakarta. (The Super Series tournament is roughly equivalent to a Grand Slam in tennis). Saina Nehwal won 2010 Commonwealth games gold in Womens Singles Shuttle badminton held in Siri Fort Auditorium, Delhi,on 14th October 2010.
Saina was born in a Jat family from Haryana. In December 1998, Saina's father took her to meet Coach Nani Prasad at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad. Seeing potential in the girl, Prasad asked Singh to enroll Saina as a summer trainee. Harvir Singh and Saina, who was 8 years old at the time, would wake at 4am every morning and head to the stadium which was 25 km away. After two hours of practice, Singh would drop Saina at school on his way to work. Sitting behind her father on his scooter, Saina would often fall asleep on these journeys which prompted her mother to accompany them for the next three months.
In order to keep up with the rising cost of her training, Saina’s father withdrew money from his savings and provident fund. The tight-rope walk continued until 2002, when sports brand Yonex offered to sponsor Saina’s kit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited). signed the rising star onto their payroll, and she is also supported by Olympic Gold Quest. Saina is the brand ambassador of Sahara India Pariwar.
Saina was the under-19 national champion. Saina created history by the winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton tournament (India Chapter) twice, becoming the first player to do so.
Saina won her second career Super Series title by winning the Singapore Open title on June 20, 2010. She completed a hat-trick in the same year by winning the Indonesian Open on June 27, 2010. This win resulted in her rise to 3rd ranking and subsequently to No. 2. This remains her highest career ranking.
Previously coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner, Saina is the reigning Indian national junior champion and is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari since August 2008 with the former All England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand being her mentor. Saina was born in Hisar, Haryana and has spent her entire life in Hyderabad, India. Her foray into the world of badminton was influenced by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal, both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana. She is the top ranked player (both Men & Women) in Indian Badminton history.
In 2006, Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, Saina went on to stun several top seeded players including number seed Huaiwen Xu before defeating Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia for the title. The same year also saw Saina as runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, where she lost a hard fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan. She did one better in the 2008 by becoming the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships by defeating ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21-9, 21-18.
She became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter finals at the Olympic Games when she upset world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Saina lost a nail biting 3-gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. In September 2008, she won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 beating Li Ya Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-8 21-19. Maria Yulianti had earlier lost her quarter-final match to Pia Bernadet, Saina's semi-final opponent, thus denying Saina a rematch.
Saina has been named The Most Promising Player in 2008. She reached the world super series semifinals in the month of December 2008.
On 21 June 2009, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title, the most prominent badminton series of the world by winning the Indonesia Open. She beat Chinese Wang Lin in the final 12-21, 21-18, 21-9. Saina on winning the tournament said "I had been longing to win a super series tournament since my quarter final appearance at the Olympics". Saina is on the par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela Gopichand who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the super series. In August 2009 she reached the quarterfinals of world championship losing to the second seed Lin Wang. Saina Nehwal was rewarded with Arjuna award in August, 2009 and her coach Gopichand was also rewarded with Dronacharya award at the same time.
Saina has been signed up by Olympic Gold Quest to support her in fulfilling her dream of winning the Olympic gold medal. Saina has been awarded with Padma Shri award in January 2010. Saina is brand ambassador of Deccan Chargers, an Indian Premier League team owned by Deccan chronicle. She has also became one of the 8 brand ambassadors of 2010 Commonwealth Games held on New Delhi IndiaHer strategy, at the beginning of 2010, was to ignore ranking points and focus her energies on premier tournaments. That seems to be working as she has won three titles (including two in India), and has reached the semis of two majors. With the World Championships, Commonwealth and Asian Games coming up, her preparation couldn’t have been better. Saina has been awarded with the highest national sporting award given to players, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on 29 August 2010.
On October 14th 2010 won gold medal against Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 in CWG delhi and made an unforgettable moment in india's badminton history.
On December 12th 2010 she won Hong Kong super series defeating Shixian Wang of China 15-21, 21-16, 21-17.
She was voted as the third best Badminton Player of the Year 2010 by readers of an international badminton magazine, Badzine. Lin Dan expectedly won the top spot with 30% votes followed by Lee Chong Wei with 26%, Saina winning 9% in the third place.In 2011, Saina Nehwal crashed out of the 2011 Korea Open Super Series Premier on 27 January 2011 in the 2nd round. She was defeated by the Japanese Sayaka Sato in a tight 3 set match with score 17-21,21-19 and 21-11. Saina, was disappointed when she was defeated by Eriko Hirose of Japan at 2011 All England Super Series Premier on 11 March 2011. She was defeated in straight sets with a score of 21-11 and 22-20. It was her second early exit of the year after being defeated in Korean Premium Super Series earlier in January.
Saina Nehwal beat Ji Hyun Sung of South Korea 21-13, 21-14 to win the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton title on 20 March 2011. Saina Nehwal posed an early exit from the Indian Open Super Series in Delhi. She disappointed the home crowd being defeated by Ai Goto of Japan in straight games 21-17 and 21-19.
Saina Nehwal faltered after a good start as she lost to the then world number three Wang Xin of China in the finals to finish runner-up in the 2011 Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold tournament on 8 May 2011. Saina lost to Xuerui Li of China in the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open GP Gold.
Saina Nehwal crashed out of World Championship 2011 as she lost 15-21 10-21 to world number 3 Wang Xin of China in a lop-sided women's singles match. Saina, who reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions of the event, had to be contend with yet another last-eight finish.
In 2011, Saina Nehwal created history by becoming the first Indian singles player to reach the final of BWF Super Series Masters Finals after defeating World No. 5 Tine Baun of Denmark in the semifinals of the 2011 BWF Super Series Masters Finals in Liuzhou (China). She lost the final against the World No. 1 Chinese Wang Yihan.
On 18th March, 2012 Saina Nehwal won Swiss Open Title by defeating World No. 2 Shixian Wang of China. One of the most successful player in the circuit this year 2012, Saina Nehwal won Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold title On 10 June 2012 and Indonesia Open Super Series On 17 June 2012, by defeating World No. 3 Li Xuerui of China.
In 2012 London Olympics, Saina won the bronze medal when China's Xing Wang retired from the match after an injury with the match at 18-21, 0-1. Saina Nehwal created history as she became the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the Olympic Games. Saina is India’s highest-paid non-cricketing sportsperson as on September 2012.
On 21 October 2012, Saina won the Denmark Open Super Series Premier after defeating Juliane Schenk of Germany 21-17 21-8 in the finals and became the second Indian to win the Denmark open.
Saina received a brand new BMW car for winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics from legend cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
In 2014 Saina defeated World Championship bronze medalist P.V. Sindhu 21-14, 21-17 to win the Women's Singles of India Open Grand Prix Gold Tournament 2014. Saina win Women's Singles of 2014 Australian Super Series, she defeated Spain's Carolina Marin 21-18, 21-11 in the Final and reach the ranking of World no. 7, climbing two spots. Saina became the 1st Indian woman to win the China Open Super Series Premier by beating Japan's Akane Yamaguchi 21-12, 22-20 in the final.
Saina reached the world no.2 ranking in the 2009 and in 2015 that she was able to attain the world no. 1 ranking and becoming the only female player from India and overall the second Indian to achieve this achievement.
In 2015, Saina Nehwal won the India Open Grand Prix Gold by defeating Spain's Carolina Marin in the Final. She became the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the finals of All England Open Badminton Championships, but lost to Carolina in the final.
Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to have won at least a medal in every BWF major individual event, namely the Olympics, the BWF World Championships and the BWF World Junior Championships. Saina Nehwal, the former world no. 1 has won over twenty three international titles, which include ten Superseries titles. In 2016, Saina has been awarded with Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award.
Data Source Wikipedia.org
