Saina Nehwal, the Indian professional badminton singles player, celebrated her 30th Birthday on March 17, 2020. She is a former world no. 1, who has won over 24 international titles, including eleven Superseries titles.
Saina Nehwal Biography
Saina Nehwal was born on 17 March 1990 in Hisar, Haryana to Harvir Singh Nehwal and Usha Rani Nehwal. She has an elder sister named Chandranshu Nehwal. Saina attended her first few years of schooling at Campus School CCS HAU in Hisar, Haryana and finished her 12th grade from St. Ann’s College for Women at Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad.
Saina took up badminton at the age of eight. Her mother, Usha Rani, was a state-level badminton player in Haryana. Nehwal took up badminton to fulfil her mother’s dream of becoming a national level badminton player, while her sister played volleyball. Her father, who was among the top players in the university circuit, supportive in Nehwal’s passion for Badminton. Nehwal also has a brown belt in karate.
Saina Nehwal Badminton Career
Saina got selection in under-19 national champion in 2006. She became the first player to win the India Chapter of Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament twice. At her age of 16, she became the first Indian woman and the youngest Asian player to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open. She got into the tournament as the 86th seed and won against several top-seeded players including the then world’s No 4 player champion Xu Huaiwen and defeated Malaysia’s Julia Wong Pei Xian in the finals. She lost a hard-fought match against top seed Chinese player Wang Yihan in 2006 BWF World Junior Championships though she became the runner up. In 2008 World Junior Badminton Championships, she defeated the ninth-seeded Japanese player Sayaka Sato by 21–9, 21–18 in the finals and became the first Indian player to win the World Junior Badminton Championships.
Saina was also the first India woman to qualify to the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games by winning against Hong Kong’s Wang Chen, world No. 5 and the fourth seed in a three-game thriller. In the quarters she lost a three-gamer to the world’s No. 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. She won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 against Malaysia’s Lydia Cheah Li Ya by 21–8 21–19. She was named “The Most Promising Player – 2008” and she reached the world super series semi-finals in December 2008.
In 2010, Saina was at the top of her career by winning 5 international tournaments as well as the India Open Grand Prix Gold, Indonesia Open Super Series, Singapore Open Super Series and the Hong Kong Open Super Series in 2010. Also, she won a Gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games which were held in India.
In 2012 she made back to back victories in the Swiss Open, Thailand Open, Indonesia Open, Denmark Open and the French Badminton Open. However, in the 2012 London Olympics, she won only Bronze. Saina took a break in her sports career for 2 years for recovering from an injury and made a comeback in 2014 by winning the India Grand Prix Gold, The Star Australian Badminton Open and the Thai hot China Open. In 2015, she won two tournaments – Syed Modi International Badminton Championship and the 2015 India Open.
Saina Nehwal Personal Life
She married fellow badminton player, Parupalli Kashyap in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018. They are preparing to start a badminton academy together in Haryana. Saina Nehwal is one of the most successful Indian sportspersons and is credited for increasing the popularity of badminton in India. She is a philanthropist and was ranked 18th on the list of most charitable athletes. She endorses brands like Commune Builder, Edelweiss Group, Emami, Fortune Cooking Oil, Godrej No Marks, Herbalife Nutrition, Huawei Honor smartphone, Indian Overseas Bank, Iodex, NECC, Sahara Group, Star Sports, Top Ramen Noodles, Vaseline and Yonex.
Saina Nehwal Awards
Saina Nehwal received the Government of India’s Arjuna Award for Badminton in 2009, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for Badminton in 2010, Padma Shri in 2010 and the Padma Bhushan – India’s third highest civilian award in 2016 for her outstanding performance in the sport.
Saina Nehwal Achievements
Saina has won Gold in 2008 BWF World Junior Championships, 2009 Indonesia Open, 2010 Hong Kong Open, 2010 Indonesia Open, 2010 Singapore Open, 2012 Denmark Open, 2012 Indonesia Open, 2014 China Open, 2014 Australian Open and 2015 India Open. She won Silver in 2006 BWF World Junior Championships and 2015 BWF World Championship and Bronze in 2012 Olympic Games.
In BWF Superseries’ she won Gold in 2010 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2016 Australian Open and 2019 Indonesia Masters. She won Bronze in the 2017 BWF World Championship, the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Championships in 2010, 2016 and 2018. In 2018 she became the runner-up of the Syed Modi International tournament, Denmark Open and Indonesia Masters.
In BWF Grand Prix category, she was the champion of 2006 Philippines Open, 2008 Chinese Taipei Open, 2009 Syed Modi International, 2010 India Open, 2011 Malaysia Masters, 2011 Swiss Open, 2012 Swiss Open, 2012 Thailand Open, 2014 Syed Modi International, 2015 Syed Modi International and 2017 Malaysia Masters.
Saina Nehwal Images on India Content Website
The India Content website has a good stock of Saina Nehwal images. The high-definition images on the website are available in three sizes – small, medium and large.
You can purchase various other content images from the https://www.indiacontent.in
