Saina Nehwal

SAINA NEHWAL
File:Nehwal.jpg
Personal information
Country	India
Born	(1990-03-17) March 17, 1990 Hisar, Haryana, India
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	60 kg (130 lb)
Handedness	Right
Coach	Pullela Gopichand, Atik Jauhari
Women's singles
Highest ranking	2 (15 July 2010)
Current ranking	3 (14 October 2010)
BWF profile

Saina Nehwal (Hindi: साइना नेहवाल,Telugu: సైనా నెహ్వాల్ ) (born March 17, 1990) is an Indian Khel Ratna winning badminton player currently ranked number 3 in the world by Badminton World Federation,. 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 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.

Childhood and early training

Saina was born in 1990 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 Nehwal won 2010 Commonwealth games gold in Womens Singles Shuttle badminton held in Siri Fort Auditorium, Delhi,on 14th October 2010.

Career summary

File:Saina nehwal at 2008 Olympic games..jpg

Saina nehwal at 2008 Olympic games.

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.

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 India

Her 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.

Career Record - Best Results

Event	Year	Result
Czechoslovakia Junior Open	2003	Gold
2004 Commonwealth Youth Games	2004	Silver
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2005	Gold
2006 Commonwealth Games	2006	Bronze
Philippines Open (badminton)	2006	Gold
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2006	Gold|-	Indian National Badminton Championships	2007	Gold
National Games of India	2007	Gold
2008 Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold	2008	Gold
Indian National Badminton Championships	2008	Gold
2008 Commonwealth Youth Games	2008	Gold
2008 BWF World Junior Championships	2008	Gold
2008 BWF Super Series Masters finals	2008	Semifinalist
2009 Indonesia Super Series	2009	Gold
2009 BWF World Championships	2009	Quarter-finalist
2009 Indian Open Grand Prix	2009	Gold
2010 All-England Super Series	2010	Gold
2010 Badminton Asia Championships	2010	Bronze
2010 India Open Grand Prix Gold	2010	Gold
2010 Singapore Open Super Series	2010	Gold
2010 Indonesia Open Super Series	2010	Gold
2010 BWF World Championships	2010	Quarter-finalist
2010 Commonwealth Games	2010	Gold

2008 Summer Olympics

Stage	Opponent	Result	Games	Points
First Round	Ella Diehl	Won	2-0	21-9, 21-8
Second Round	Larisa Griga	Won	2-0	21-18, 21-10
Third Round	Wang Chen	Won	2-1	21-19, 11-21, 21-11
Quarter-finals	Maria Kristin Yulianti	Lost	1-2	28-26, 14-21, 15-21

2010 Updates (Her Path Breaking Year)

• Saina successfully lead the Indian Women Team to the Quarter-finals stage of the 2010 Uber Cup finals.

• Saina became the first Indian Woman to reach the semi finals of 2010 All-England Super Series before losing to eventual champion Tine Rasmussen.

• Top seeded Saina reached the semifinals of Yonex Sunrise Badminton Asia Championships 2010 losing out to unseeded eventual champion Li Xuerui of China. Saina's Coach Gopichand advised her not exert too much pressure on herself due to the overwhelming home crowd support.

• Saina wins the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold 2010, beating Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in the final and thus justifying her billing as top seed in the tournament. She won a prize money of $8,280 for winning this BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament.

• Saina Nehwal, again seeded no. 1 in the Singapore Open Super Series 2010, entered the finals defeating World champion Lu Lan of China (updated on 06/20/2010)

• Saina won the second Super Series title of her career by beating qualifier Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the final of the Singapore Open 21-18, 21-15. But the fact that she won the tournament in the absence of all the top 5 ranked players (who all happen to be Chinese), takes a little sheen away from her path breaking victory. Saina won a prize money of $15,000 for winning this BWF Super Series tournament.

• Saina has reached a career high of world no. 3 in the women's singles badminton world rankings on 24 June 2010.

• Saina defended her Indonesia Open super series title in three tough games against Sayaka Sato of Japan, 21-19 / 13-21 / 21-11.This is her third super series title and her third successive title following wins at Indian open,Singapore Super series. She again won the top prize money of $18,750 for winning this BWF Super Series tournament.

• On 15 July 2010, with 64791.26 points Saina Nehwal reached a career high world ranking of No. 2 only behind Wang Yihan of China.

• 2nd seed Saina, a tournament favourite, crashed out of the 2010 BWF World Championships in Paris after losing to 4th ranked Chinese Wang Shixian in straight sets 8-21, 14-21. She although equalled her tournament best performance, as she was also a losing quarter-finalist in the last edition held in Hyderabad. She subsequently dropped a spot to be No. 3 in the world rankings.

• In the BWF Super Series ranking for the year 2010 (which only considers the performances of players in the elite world super series tournaments), as on 27 September 2010, Saina has dropped to No. 7 from a high of No. 1 after giving a miss to 2010 China Masters Super Series and 2010 Japan Super Series due to her preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games .

• Top seed Saina, won the gold medal in the Women's Singles badminton event in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. She beat Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 19-21 23-21 21-13.

Record Against Top ranked Chinese Opponents

• Wang Yihan 0-1
• Wang Xin 0-2
• Jiang Yanjiao 0-3
• Wang Lin 1-3
• Wang Shixian 0-1
• Lu Lan 2-1

Record Against other top rated Opponents

• Tine Rasmussen 0-2
• Pi Hongyan 0-5
• Zhou Mi 1-3
• Juliane Schenk 4-2
• Eriko Hirose 1-2
• Yao Jie 1-2
• Bae Seung Hee 2-0
• Yip Pui Yin 1-1
• Ella Diehl 5-0
• Petya Nedelcheva 3-1
• Wong Mew Choo 5-2
• Salakjit Ponsana 2-0
• Adrianti Firdasari 2-2
• Ai Goto 3-0
• Bae Youn-joo 2-0

(as on 31 August 2010)

References

Cited

General

• Interview with Saina Nehwal - "Your Call with Saina Nehwal" on NDTV http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1218022
• Singh, Amanpreet (2007-01-06). "Saina: The untold story". The Tribune. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
• [5]
• http://english.samaylive.com/sports/676466926.html : Saina Nehwal wins Indonesia Open