On 04 Aug 2012, Harvir Singh was doing a general shift in an office, suddenly someone shouted “Aaj Saina ka match hai”, I quickly realised that Saina was about to play bronze medal match against a formidable opponent in Wang Xin. After 45-50 minutes of the match, Wang injured her leg and could not continue although she tried and did win 2-3 points consecutively she retired and Saina won a podium finish.
Many congratulations to Saina Nehwal for winning a bronze in London Olympics! India is proud of her.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 4, 2012
Saina Nehwal, the daughter of Harvir Singh Nehwal and Usha Rani Nehwal, was born on 17 Mar 1990 in Haryana. Her father and mother were badminton players and played for several years. Father, worked in Agriculture University, was a top player in University circuit & mother was a state-level badminton player in Haryana.
Saina’s father was promoted and transferred to Hyderabad when she was 8 years old, from that point she took up badminton sport to express herself as lack of local knowledge was a hindrance in socialising with other children. Saina had one elder sister who took Volleyball while she played badminton to fulfil her mother’s dream of becoming National level badminton player. Her father used his provident fund to provide quality training to her. At 16 years of age, Saina backed her father’s investment by winning the Philippines Open by defeating many top seed players including then number 2 Xu Huawei. She took huge strides in a very short time and became a popular name. At 18 years she became the first Indian to win World Junior Badminton Championships in 2008.
In the same year, she competed in Olympics and reached the quarter-final and thereby becoming the first Indian women to do so. In pre-quarters, she defeated reigning Asian Champion Wang Chen and in quarters was leading 11-3 in deciding set but then she ran out of steam to bow out of Olympics. In June 2009, she created history by becoming first Indian to win BWF series title. Such was her thirst for the super series title that she said after winning the title that “I had been longing to win a super series event since my quarter-final appearance at Olympics”.
She made steady progress and reached Her career graph was on an exponential rise and she also became first Indian women reach semifinals of All England Championships. Such was her rise that she reached career-high of number 3 by June 2010. She skipped some masters to prepare for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth and justified her decision by winning the finals. In finals against Wong Mee Choo she was a match point down and from there not only she won the set but also the third set to clinch the gold. Those who were at the stadium watching the match still say that it was a proud feeling.
At this point in her career, it was battle of Saina vs China Mania. She looked a tad tensed while competing against them. She had achieved many heights but still, the Olympic medal was missing from her CV as she started to prepare for the 2012 Olympics. Such was fear in Chinese minds for Saina that they have included Wang Xin also in their squad. Badminton event started and things went as expected with 3 Chinese and 1 Indian reaching the semis. Saina had to play Wang Xian and got beaten comprehensively. She still had a chance to be on podium by winning her third-place match but then again a Chinese, Wang Xin a former world number 1, was always going to be a herculean task. Although Saina started the match more confidently and more aggressively but Xin won the first set at 18-21.
The second set started and Xin was leading 0-1 but could not continue as she had a knee injury by end of first set. Xin could not continue and forfeited the match. Saina shook her hands and got a place on the podium. She would have wanted to win it by defeating Xin on the court but it wasn’t Saina’s fault and she just about deserved it after being flawless in lead upto semis. She could not cross the round-robin stage in 2016 Olympics due to a knee injury.
Her career record stands at 433-196 which indicates she has lost 1/3rd of total matches played. She has an Olympic medal to show which are anyways very few wrt Indian perspective. She is still training hard and the next Olympic medal cannot be discounted.
