Saina Nehwal: The Indian Shuttler

Saina Nehwal has been causing ripples in the world of Badminton since the day she reached quarterfinals at Beijing Olympics 2008.

So, we decided to put a page on her players profile here.

Saina is the best Indian woman player by quite a margin. She is the first Indian woman to reach the quarterfinals at the Olympics. Currently ranked 11th in the world, she is definitely a force to reckon with.

Here is it all started:

Saina was born in the city of Hisar in Haryana, 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 started her training at the age of 8 years with coach Nani Prasad. She and her family struggled a lot to get her the trainings, the equipment, shuttles and rackets. So much so that her father had to take a dip into his PF to meet the expenses. This however, ended in 2002, when Yonex sonsored her for the sports kit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL signed the rising star onto their payroll, and in 2005 she was spotted by the Mittal Champions Trust.

Career:

Saina is the reigning Under-19 national champion. Also a regular in the senior circuit, 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 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. In the same month, she entered the semifinals of the Chinese Masters by beating world chanpion Zhu Lin 21-16, 21-23, 21-18 in a keenly-contested quarterfinal.

Highlights:

Event	Year	Result
Czechoslovakia Junior Open	2003	Winner
Youth Commonwealth Games Australia	2004	2 Silver
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2005	Winner
World Junior Badminton Championships	2006	Runner Up
Youth Commonwealth Games	2006	3 Bronze
Philippines Open	2006	Winner
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2006	Winner
Beijing Olympics	2008	Quarter Finals
Yonex Chinese Taipei Open	2008	Winner
Chinese Masters	2008	Semifinalist

Her BWF(Badminton World Federation) profile: http://www.internationalbadminton.org/player_info.asp?playerid=52748

Endorsements come calling:

With success comes the celebrity status. Same is the case with Saina. She is reported to be signed up for endorsements worth 45 Lacs. This can be termed as the end of ordeal for her and her family. The endless struggle seems to have bore fruit finally.

We hope Saina would make the country proud in the coming times as well.