Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal is an Indian professional badminton player and she is the former world no 1 and is included in the top ten world ranking badminton player in the world. She is the first Indian female and second Indian player after Prakash Padukone to attain the world no 1 ranking. She has also represented India in Olympics and has also won bronze medal in Olympics. She also holds the record to be the only Indian to have won at least a medal in every BWF major individual event and she is also the youngest Indian to win a 4- star tournament. In the 2014 Uber Cup, she captained the Indian team and remained undefeated and won the bronze medal. For all her contribution in the sport of badminton, she has received many awards and recognition. In 2016, she was conferred by the Government of India with Padma Bhushan. She has also received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award ad Arjuna Award.

Born on 17^th March 1990 in Hisar town of Haryana, she was born to Harvir Singh and Usha Rani. Her father worked in Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar. Nehwal started her schooling from the Campus School located inside the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University and later the family moved to Hyderabad and later she completed her schooling from St Anne’s College Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad. Since her childhood, she was interested in badminton and she was coached by Nani Prasad and later she started to get coached by award winning badminton coach S. M. Arif. She rose to popularity in 2006 after winning the Under 19 national championships and later won the Asian Satellite Badminton twice. She then won the Philippines Open tournament and also performed well in several junior tournaments. She was the runner up at the BWF World Junior Championship of 2006 and later in 2008 she won the World Junior Badminton Championships and later she reached at the quarter finals at the Beijing Olympics. After the Beijing Olympics, she participated in the Chinese Taipei Open and won the tournament. She continued her form and later in 2009, she won the Indonesia Open and became the first Indian player to do so. Then in 2010, she reached to the semifinals of All England Super Series and later won the Singapore Open Super Series and later also won the Indonesian Open. In 2010, she participated in the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi and won the gold medal in the women’s singles category and rounded off the year after winning the Indonesian Super Series title. Later in 2011, she reached in the final stage of several tournaments and later won the Swiss Open, Thailand Open Grand Prix, Indonesian Open Super Series and the 2012 Denmark Open Super Series. She then participated in the 2012 London Olympics and won the bronze medal in the women’s singles category. SainaNehwal won the singles title at the India Open Grand Prix on 26 January 2014 and reached the quarter finals of the All England Super Series Premier. The same year, she emerged as the winner of the women’s singles tournament at the Australian Super Series and also became the world’s 7th ranked player after winning that tournament. Nehwal also won the China Open Super Series that year.In 2015, SainaNehwal won the women’s singles event at the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold and in the final; she beat Spanish player Carolina Marina. At the All England Badminton Open Championships the same year, Marina beat Nehwal in the final. The same year, Nehwal won the singles event at the India Open BWF Super Series and became the number 1 women’s player in the Badminton World Federation rankings.

SainaNehwal is unmarried and for her contribution in the sport of badminton, she has received many awards and recognition. In 2016, she was conferred by the Government of India with Padma Bhushan. She has also received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award ad Arjuna Award.