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Saina Nehwal is arguably the best female Indian badminton player currently in India. Saina’s massive success in the sport, rekindled belief within the sport. Currently ranked number two, Saina has also been an inspiration for many young Indian girls to take up badminton as a profession. The reigning Indian national champion has 14 major titles to her credit as of now and will be a promising prospect for India at the 2016 Rio Olympics.The International Crops Reserch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in 2014 named Nehwal as their ‘Ambassador of Goodwill’ for her service to Indian sports.
#5 World Junior Championship 2008 (Winner)
Among her many firsts, Saina became the first Indian woman to win the World Junior Badminton Championships in 2008, which was held in Pune.
Top seeded at the event, Saina got the better of Japanese rival Sayaka Sato 21-9 21-18 convincingly in the match, which just lasted only for 25 minutes.Her performance was so convincing, over the course of the event that the her former coach Pullela Gopichand claimed that Saina played like a champion all through the tournament.
#4 Delhi Common Wealth Games 2010 (One Gold and One Silver)
After winning the mixed team silver at the CWG 2006 in Melbourne, the CWG 2010 was even better as she won Gold medal in the singles and a mixed team silver.
In the finals, she got the better of Malaysian Mew Choo Wong in a thrilling contest. Saina bounced back from a game down to win the match 19-21 23-21 21-13 in an epic 70 minute clash.
She previously had a very good run in 2010 winning three titles (India Open, Singapore Super series and Indonesian Super series).
Needless to say, Saina also became the first woman shuttler to win CWG gold.
#3 All England Tour Finals (Runner Up)
This year’s All England Tour finals was heart breaking for badminton fans across India because of Saina’s loss. The whole nation was expecting Saina to clinch the title for the first time in 14, after her coach Gopichand won the title in 2000.
Saina also started as the favourite because she had already won three matches against the Spaniard in the past.
World champion Carolina Marin of Spain came back. after the girl from Hyderabad won the first. "The game just went away from me," said Nehwal post match.
#2 China Open Super Series Tournament 2014 (Winner)
The 2014 China Open tournament went very well for India as Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth won the women’s and men’s titles respectively to make it a historical event for the country.
It was such a great victory for Saina as it was her sixth shot at the title having failed the first five times. Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal beat Japan's Akane Yamaguchi quite convincingly winning in straight games 21-12, 22-20.
By that time, Saina was ranked seventh and the win helped her move to number five in the world rankings. Saina Nehwal also became the first Indian woman to win this title.
#1 London Olympics 2012 (Bronze)
On 4th August 2012, Saina Nehwal created history by becoming the first Indian to win a medal at the Olympics by winning the bronze medal. The 24-year old is also the second Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, 12 years after Karnam Malleswari, who won bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Previously, in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Saina lost in the quarter finals in a hard fought match against Maria Kristin Yulianti.
Though the 25-year old had a share of luck as her opponent Xin Wang retired hurt, after winning the first game and leading 1-0 in the second set, Saina had played exceedingly well to reach to the bronze medal play off.
“It was unfortunate that Wang had to retire. I feel that Saina would have won anyway if the match would have gone on,” said Gopichand talking about the unfortunate injury to Wang.
With the Rio Olympics scheduled for next year, Saina would try to go two steps further and win elusive Gold medal.
