Saina Nehwal

India’s shining new star Saina Nehwal started training in badminton under Dronacharya Awardee S M Arif. Saina was born to a Haryana state badminton champion mother and a scientist father. Saina’s family has been instrumental in encouraging her towards becoming a better player and has always provided her with their full support.

Since her early playing days, Saina was considered a very good player and full of potential. Saina was a National Junior champion and has played and won various prestigious championships. Saina has not only created a name for herself in the National arena, but also gained a firm foothold in the International circuit.

The Junior Czech Open in 2003, which she won, was a major breakthrough in her career. From there on, it has been an upward ride for her. Even though she could not win Commonwealth games of 2004, she made her mark and also participated in the Junior Asiad championship of 2004.

Saina Nehwal has long lived under the shadow of Sania Mirza, who was the better known celebrity. Even though Saina never tried to hog the limelight, she created a place for herself on top of the world of badminton because of her dedication and hard work. In 2010, Saina Ied the Indian Woman’s team to the final of the Uber Cup. She also became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-final stage of the All-England Super Series. Besides this, she reached the semi-finals of the Yonex Sunrise Badminton Asia Championships as the top seed.

She won the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold 2010 after a tough battle. In fact, she was seeded No. 1 at this tournament! She also received top ranking at the Singapore Open Super Series 2010, defeating world champion Lu Lan from China as well as Tzu Ying Tai from Chinese Taipei. These tournaments were a significant milestone in her career as she won back-to-back title triumphs and reached the World No. 3 ranking. 

Later on, she defended her Indian Open Super Series crown to finish off her hatrick of titles and soon won herself the World No.2 ranking. Saina Nehwal is a huge inspiration to all women the world over. She proves once again that with grit, determination and hard work, anyone can achieve success. The best thing about Saina is that she has not gone the traditional way of becoming brand ambassador of every brand under the sun. She reaffirms that her game is her top priority and she wouldn’t want to lose focus on that. With such stop@nothing attitude, we are sure Saina Nehwal would soon achieve the numero uno position in terms of rankings.