Saina Nehwal is an Indian professional badminton player.
77 Facts About Saina Nehwal
2.
Saina Nehwal has represented India three times in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in her second appearance at London 2012.
3.
Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every BWF major individual event, namely the Olympics, the BWF World Championships, and the BWF World Junior Championships.
4.
Saina Nehwal is the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal, the first Indian to have reached the final of the BWF World Championships, and the first Indian to have won the BWF World Junior Championships.
5.
In 2006, Nehwal became the first Indian female and the youngest Asian to win a 4-star tournament.
6.
Saina Nehwal is the first Indian to win a Super Series title.
7.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian to win two singles gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
8.
Saina Nehwal is a philanthropist and was ranked 18th on the list of most charitable athletes in 2015.
9.
Saina Nehwal, the daughter of Harvir Singh Nehwal and Usha Rani Nehwal, was born in Hisar.
10.
Saina Nehwal has only one sibling, an elder sister named Chandranshu Nehwal.
11.
Saina Nehwal completed her first few years of schooling at Campus School CCS HAU, Hisar.
12.
Saina Nehwal finished 12th grade from the St Ann's College for Women, Hyderabad.
13.
Saina Nehwal's parents played badminton for a number of years.
14.
Saina Nehwal's mother, Usha Rani, was a state level badminton player in Haryana.
15.
Saina Nehwal took up badminton to fulfill her mother's dream of becoming a national level badminton player, while her sister played volleyball.
16.
Saina Nehwal trained under Pullela Gopichand in his academy Gopichand Badminton Academy.
17.
In 2005, at the age of 15, Saina Nehwal has won an Asian Satellite tournament in New Delhi, beating Aparna Popat in the final in straight games.
18.
In 2006, Saina Nehwal became the under-19 national champion and claimed her second Indian Asian Satellite tournament.
19.
Saina Nehwal represented India at the Sudirman Cup in Scotland.
20.
Saina Nehwal was a finalist at the Indian International challenge in 2007 where she lost to Kanako Yonekura in 2 games.
21.
Saina Nehwal participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she was unseeded.
22.
Saina Nehwal began her fight with a win against Russian Ella Diehl in round 1 and Ukrainian Larisa Griga in second round.
23.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals when she upset reigning Asian Games champion number four seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller.
24.
Saina Nehwal was a semifinalist at the China Masters Superseries after she beat reigning World Champion Zhu Lin in quarterfinals.
25.
Saina Nehwal was named "The Most Promising Player" by the Badminton World Federation in 2008.
26.
Saina Nehwal defeated Pi Hongyan and Wong Mew Choo in early rounds.
27.
Saina Nehwal on winning the tournament said, "I had been longing to win a super series tournament since my quarter final appearance at the Olympics".
28.
Saina Nehwal is at 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.
29.
Saina Nehwal again reached the semifinals of this tournament but went down, this time to Germany's Juliane Schenk.
30.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of All England Open before losing to eventual champion Tine Rasmussen.
31.
Top seeded Saina Nehwal reached the semifinals of Asian Championships, losing out to unseeded eventual champion Li Xuerui of China, settling for bronze medal.
32.
Saina Nehwal won the India Open Grand Prix Gold, beating Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in the final and thus justifying her billing as top seed in the tournament.
33.
On 15 July 2010, with 64791.26 points, Saina Nehwal reached a career high world ranking of number 2 only behind Wang Yihan of China.
34.
Top seed Saina Nehwal won the gold medal in the women's singles in the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi.
35.
Saina Nehwal confirmed her participation for the Hong Kong Open after a gap of more than five months since her win in the Indonesia Open in June 2010.
36.
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 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold tournament.
37.
Saina Nehwal, who reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions of the event, had to be content with yet another last-eight finish.
38.
At the London Olympics, Saina Nehwal was seeded 4th in the draw.
39.
Saina Nehwal successfully entered the finals of French Open, but she lost against Minatsu Mitani in straight sets.
40.
In 2013, Saina Nehwal reached the semifinal of All England Open but was defeated by 3-time World Junior Champion Ratchanok Intanon.
41.
Saina Nehwal withdrew from 2014 Commonwealth Games due to fitness Issue and injury problems she carried during Australian Open.
42.
Saina Nehwal lost in the quarterfinals of World Championships again, this time to Li Xuerui.
43.
Saina Nehwal was the quarter-finalist at the Asian Games as well, where she lost to Wang Yihan.
44.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the finals of the All England Open, but lost to Marin in the final.
45.
At the World Championship held in Jakarta, Saina Nehwal was seeded 2nd.
46.
Saina Nehwal defeated Cheung Ngan Yi and Sayaka Takahashi in early rounds and reached the quarterfinals where she faced Chinese Wang Yihan.
47.
Saina Nehwal beat home hope Lindaweni Fanetri in the semifinal and created history by becoming first ever player from India to contest World badminton championship finals.
48.
Saina Nehwal settled for the silver after going down to Carolina Marin in final.
49.
Saina Nehwal took part at the Season Ending Championships where she lost against Tai Tzu-ying and Nozomi Okuhara but won against Carolina Marin, a player she struggled to beat in the whole year, in one of the group matches.
50.
Saina Nehwal dealt with injuries in early 2016 but she eventually recovered.
51.
At the Australian Open, Saina Nehwal went into the finals after beating Ratchanok Intanon in quarters and Wang Yihan in semifinals.
52.
Saina Nehwal's coach cited the week-old knee injury for her below par performance.
53.
Saina Nehwal couldn't do well much of the year due to injury; she was still recovering.
54.
Saina Nehwal was seeded 12th in the World Championship at Glasgow.
55.
Saina Nehwal beat 2nd seed Sung Ji-hyun in round of 16 and reached quarterfinals for 7th straight time.
56.
Saina Nehwal then clinched a bronze in the Asian Championships which was her third medal in the tournament altogether, as she went down fighting to the defending champion Tai Tzu-ying.
57.
Saina Nehwal further ousted 4th seed Ratchanok Intanon and reached World Championships quarter-final for record 8th straight time.
58.
Saina Nehwal lost tamely to Carolina Marin there, in an unexpectedly lop-sided clash.
59.
Saina Nehwal defeated Iran's Sorayya Aghaei in round of 32 and Indonesia's Fitriani in second round both in straight games.
60.
Saina Nehwal made history by winning the first medal for India in badminton after a long wait of 36 years.
61.
Saina Nehwal lost to Tai Tzu-ying in the semifinal, winning a bronze medal.
62.
Saina Nehwal then defeated 2 tough Japanese opponents in successive rounds; beating Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara.
63.
Saina Nehwal went into the finals of Syed Modi Badminton Super 300 tournament but lost to Han Yue of China.
64.
Saina Nehwal won her first BWF Super 500 title, the Indonesia Masters, against Carolina Marin, after the latter retired from the court injured.
65.
Saina Nehwal then made successive Round 2 exits in the India Open and Indonesia Open.
66.
Saina Nehwal then lost out to third seed Chen Yu Fei in straight games.
67.
Saina Nehwal appeared to be very positive about the 2023 season after her loss, exclaiming, 'everyone wants to win'.
68.
Saina Nehwal was ousted in the second round by Han Yue in straight games.
69.
Saina Nehwal's improved performances in India and Indonesia resulted in a ranking boost to world number 26.
70.
Saina Nehwal is a fan of Shah Rukh Khan and Mahesh Babu Chris Gayle.
71.
Saina Nehwal is in the process of opening a badminton academy in her native state of Haryana.
72.
Saina Nehwal married a badminton player, Parupalli Kashyap in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018.
73.
Saina Nehwal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi on 29 January 2020 in the presence of party's national general secretary Arun Singh.
74.
Saina Nehwal is one of the athletes supported by Olympic Gold Quest.
75.
Saina Nehwal endorses Commune Builder, Edelweiss Group, Emami, Fortune Cooking Oil, Godrej No Marks, Herbalife Nutrition, Huawei Honor smartphone.
76.
Saina Nehwal has been invited on popular Indian television shows as a guest including Satyamev Jayate, Comedy Nights with Kapil, The Kapil Sharma Show, Sam Jam.
77.
Saina Nehwal's autobiography, Playing to Win: My Life On and Off Court, was released in 2012.