Saina Nehwal – Age, Height, Weight, Career and More.

Saina Nehwal is an ace badminton player who attained the World No. 1 ranking in 2015. She is second only to Prakash Padukone to achieve this feat and the only female player from India.

Nehwal lived in Hisar town of Haryana state in India for a few years early in her life but the family relocated to Hyderabad. She was still only a child and it was in the new city that she learned the tricks of the game from some of the best known coaches in the game.

She also holds the record of being the first-ever badminton player from India to clinch an Olympic medal. 

Personal Information about Saina Nehwal

Physical Stats

Early Life and Family

Saina Nehwal was born on 17 March 1990 to Harvir Singh Nehwal and Usha Rani Nehwal in Hisar, Haryana. Her father worked at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. Her mother was a state-level badminton player in Haryana. She has a sister whose name is Abu Chandrashu Nehwal.

Nehwal studied at the Campus School located inside the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University campus. But the family moved to Hyderabad after a few years. She passed her high school at St. Anne’s College Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad.

Nehwal was interested in badminton from an early age and was coached by Nani Prasad when she was a child. Subsequently, she was coached by S. M. Arif, an award winning badminton coach.

When she won the Under-19 national championships as a youngster in 2006, Nehwal shot to fame. She’s also a two-time winner of the Asian Satellite Badminton competition.

Career of Saina Nehwal

• In 2006, Nehwal won the Philippines Open tournament and also performed well at several junior tournaments. She was the runner up at the BWF World Junior Championship held in 2006. Two years later she won the World Junior Badminton Championships and at Beijing Olympics held in the same year she reached the quarter finals. Following the Olympics, she won the Chinese Taipei Open.
• Nehwal won the Indonesia Open in 2009, a BWF Super Series event and in the process became the first Indian badminton player to do so. The following year she played in the semi finals of the All England Super Series and the same year she won the Singapore Open Super Series and the Indonesian Open.
• Saina Nehwal won the 2010 India Open Grand Prix Gold, Singapore Open Super Series 2010 and defended her Indonesia Open title. She won the gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi and the 2010 Hong Kong Super Series—her fourth career Super Series title.
• In 2011, Nehwal reached the final stages of several tournaments but could not win any titles but won the Swiss Open, Thailand Open Grand Prix, Indonesia Open Super Series and the Denmark Open Super Series in 2012. At the London Olympics 2012, Nehwal won the bronze medal in the women’s singles category.

Recent works of Saina Nehwal

• Saina Nehwal won the singles title at the India Open Grand Prix on 26 January 2014 and reached the quarter finals of the All England Super Series Premier. The same year, she emerged as the winner of the women’s singles tournament at the Australian Super Series and also became the world’s 7th ranked player after winning that tournament. Nehwal also won the China Open Super Series that year.
• In 2015, Saina Nehwal won the women’s singles event at the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold and in the final; she beat Spanish player Carolina Marina. At the All England Badminton Open Championships the same year, Marina beat Nehwal in the final. The same year, Nehwal won the singles event at the India Open BWF Super Series and became the number 1 women’s player in the Badminton World Federation rankings.
• Saina Nehwal dealt with her injuries in early 2016 but eventually recovered and settled for bronze at the Badminton Asia Championships. She also won the Australian Super Series that year. Due to her injuries, Nehwal failed to make a mark at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
• In the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Nehwal defeated PV Sindhu to win the gold medal. She went on winning bronze at the Asian Championships. She won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games, bringing the first medal for India after 36 years. In 2019, Nehwal won her first BWF Super 500 title, the Indonesia Masters.

Marriage

Saina Nehwal is married to fellow badminton player Parupalli Kashyap. The couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony on 14 December 2018.

Saina and Politics

On 29 January 2020, Nehwal joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of the Party’s National General Secretary, Arun Singh. She draws her inspiration from Prime Minister Modi. Her sister, Abu Chandranshu, also joined the party.  

Some Lesser Known Facts

1. Saina Nehwal has a brown belt in Karate.
2. Sachin Tendulkar gifted her a BMW after she won the Olympics gold medal in 2012.
3. She is a huge fan of Roger Federer and Sachin Tendulkar.
4. Saina was ranked 18th on the most charitable athelets’ list.