First Indian World No.1 In Badminton- Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal is an Indian female badminton player who was born on 17th March 1998 Hisar in Haryana her father's name is Mr. Harvir Singh Nehwal. Her mother's name is Mrs. Usha Rani Nehwal. She has only one sibling an elder sister named Chandranshu Nehwal. She completed her first few years of school at Campus School CCS HAU Hisar, Haryana, India. When her father was promoted and transferred from Haryana to Hyderabad she took up badminton at the age of eight. Seeing her interest in the sport her parents enrolled her at the Pullela Gopichand Academy where she started her professional training under S.M. Arif. Saina's first major victory came in the year 2003 when she won the Junior National Championship at the age of 13 years. In 2006 Nehwal became the Under- 19 National champion and created history by winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament twice, becoming the first player to do so. She became the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championship. In June 2009 she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series Title. Nehwal successfully LED the Indian women's team to the quarter-final stage of the 2010 Uber Cup finals. Nehwal won the 2010 India open Grand Prix Gold. Nehwal won the second super series title of her career by beating the qualifier Tai- Tzu- Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Nehwal reached a career-high of world number 3 in the women's single badminton World ranking on 24th June 2010. She defended her Indonesia open super series title in the tough game against Sayata Sato of Japan. This was her third super series title in a row. On 15th July 2010, Nehwal reached a career-high world ranking of number 2 top seed Nehwal won the gold medal in the women's singles badminton event in the 2010 Commonwealth games held in New Delhi. Saina won back-to-back tournaments in 2012 such as Thailand Open, Indonesia Open, French Open, and Denmark Open. However, she had no console herself with the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics Saina returned to the court in 2014 after recovering from an injury and won the Indian Grand Prix Gold. The star of 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. On 24th March 2015, Nehwal won her maiden women's singles title at India open BWF super series. This assured her of becoming world number one when the BWF ranking was released on April 2. Thus, she became the first Indian woman player to be world number one in badminton. Nehwal dealt with injuries in early 2016 but she eventually recovered Nehwal won the 2018 Indonesia masters. She has represented India three times in Olympics, winning a bronze medal in her appearance. She is the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every BWF major individual event namely the Olympics, the BWF World Championship, and the BWF World Junior Championship. In 2006 Nehwal became the first Indian female and the Asian to win a 4-star tournament. She also has the distinction of being the first Indian to win a super series title. In 2016, the Government of India conferred a Padma Bhushan, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, and the Arjuna award.