Badminton Star Saina Nehwal was born in a Jat family of 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 renowned scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal, both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana. Saina’s birth was a big disappointment to her grandmother as grandma wanted a boy child.
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 her father to enrol Saina as a summer trainee.
Saina, who was only 8 years at that time, her father Harvir Singh would wake at 4 a.m. every morning and have to the stadium which was 25 km away. After two hours of practice, Mr Singh would drop Saina at school on his way to work. Sitting behind her father on his scooter, Saina would fall asleep on these journeys which prompted her mother to accompany them for the next three months.
This tight-rope walk continued until 2002 when sports brand Yonex offered to sponsor Saina’skit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited) signed this rising star onto their Payroll and she is also supported by Olympic Gold Quest. Saina’s Career’s Achievements In the year 2003, at the age of 13, Saina won the Gold medal in Czechoslovakia Junior open. In 2004, she won the silver medal in the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games. In 2005, she won a Gold medal in Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament. 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 Xu Huaiwen before defeating Julia wong Pci xian 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 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 Lydia Cheah Li ya of Malaysia 21-8, 21-19.
Saina has been named the most promising player in 2008. She reached the world super series semifinals in December 2008. On 21st June 2009, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Superseries 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 is on par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela pitched, who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the Super Series.
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. On October 14th 2010, Saina won a gold medal against Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 in Commonwealth Games, Delhi and made an unforgettable moment in India’s badminton history on December 12th 2010, she won Hong Kong Superseries defeating Wong Shixian of China 15-21, 21-16, 21-17.
2010 was a great year for Saina as she won prize money of $ 8,280 for winning the BWF Grand Prix gold Tournament. Saina won Prize money of $ 15,000 for winning the BWF Super Series Tournament. Saina has reached a career-high of world no. 3 in the Women’s Singles badminton world rankings on 29th June 2010.
Saina defended her Indonesia Open Super Series title in three tough games against Sayaka Sato of Japan, 2119/13-21/21-11. This is her third Super Series title and her third successive title following Winsat Indian open, Singapore Super Series. She again won the top prize. money of $ 18, 750 for winning this BWF Super Series Tournament. On July 15, 2010, with 64791.26 points, Saina Nehwal reached a career-high world ranking of no. 2 only behind Wang Jihan of China. Previously, Saina was coached by S.M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner 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. Awards-Saina Nehwal is rewarded with Arjuna Award in August 2009 and her Coach Gopichand is 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 the Padma Shri award in January 2010. Saina is the brand ambassador of Deccan Charges, an Indian Premier League team owned by Deccan Chronicle. She has also become one of the 8 brand ambassadors of the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India. Saina has been awarded the highest national sporting award given to players, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratha award on 29th August 2010.
Truly this daughter of mother India is making all of us surprised with her excellent performances. Now we can say that women are not behind men in any field. Only women have to be encouraged by their family members and by society.
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