Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 that she was able to attain the world no. 1 ranking, thereby becoming the only female player from India and thereafter the second Indian player – after Prakash Padukone – to achieve this feat. She has represented India three times in the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in her second appearance at London 2012.

Nehwal has achieved several milestones in badminton for India. She is the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every BWF major individual event, namely the Olympics, the BWF World Championships, and the BWF World Junior Championships. She is the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal, the first Indian to have reached the final of the BWF World Championships, and the first Indian to have won the BWF World Junior Championships. In 2006, Nehwal became the first Indian female and the youngest Asian to win a 4-star tournament. She is also the first Indian to win a Super Series title. In the 2014 Uber Cup, she captained the Indian team and remained undefeated, helping India to win a first-ever Uber Cup bronze medal. Nehwal also became the first Indian to win two singles gold medals (2010 and 2018) at the Commonwealth Games.

Considered one of India's most successful badminton players, Nehwal is credited for increasing the popularity of badminton in India. In 2016, she was conferred the Padma Bhushan – India's third highest civilian award. Previously, she had also received the nation's top two sporting honours, namely the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award. Nehwal is a philanthropist and was ranked 18th on the list of most charitable athletes in 2015.

The London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist last played a competitive match at the 2023 Singapore Open, but confirmed her retirement from professional badminton in January 2026 on a podcast.

Early life

Saina Nehwal, the daughter of Harvir Singh Nehwal and Usha Rani Nehwal, was born in Hisar, Haryana. She has an elder sister named Chandranshu Nehwal. Her father, who has a PhD in agricultural science, worked at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. She completed her first few years of schooling at Campus School CCS HAU, Hisar. She finished 12th grade from the St. Ann's College for Women, Hyderabad.

When her father was promoted and transferred from Haryana to Hyderabad, she took up badminton at the age of eight to express herself, as she did not know the local language well enough to socialise with other kids. Her parents played badminton for a number of years. Her mother, Usha Rani, was a state level badminton player in Haryana. Nehwal took up badminton to fulfill her mother's dream of becoming a national level badminton player, while her sister played volleyball. Her father, who was among the top players in the university circuit, used his provident fund to invest in good badminton training for her. After moving to Hyderabad in 1998, she was enrolled in a karate class by her parents, which she continued for a year and earned a brown belt.

She trained under Pullela Gopichand in his academy Gopichand Badminton Academy. In 2014, she parted with Gopichand and joined Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore and trained under U. Vimal Kumar under whose training she became World number one; she later in 2017 returned to train under Gopichand. In his book 'Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games', Gopichand said that he felt miserable when she left him and went to train in Bangalore.

Personal life

Nehwal and her family speak the Haryanvi language at home. She is a fan of actors Shah Rukh Khan and Mahesh Babu and cricketer Chris Gayle. She is in the process of opening a badminton academy in her native state of Haryana.

She married a badminton player, Parupalli Kashyap in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018. On 14 July 2025, Nehwal announced separation from her husband in an Instagram post. However, on 2 August 2025, she shared on Instagram that the couple was "trying again" and working on their relationship.

Political career

Nehwal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi on 29 January 2020 in the presence of party's national general secretary Arun Singh. Her sister Abu Chandranshu Nehwal also joined the party. She was quoted as saying "Narendra Modi is working hard for the country, and has always inspired me."

Career

2005–2007

In 2005, at the age of 15, Nehwal has won an Asian Satellite tournament in New Delhi, beating Aparna Popat in the final in straight games.

In 2006, Nehwal became the under-19 national champion and claimed her second Indian Asian Satellite tournament. In May, at age 16, she became the first Indian woman and the youngest player from Asia to win a 4-star tournament – the Philippines Open. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, she went on to stun several top-seeded players including the then world number two Huaiwen Xu before defeating Julia Wong Pei Xian of Malaysia for the title. A few months after she entered the International badminton circuit, Nehwal participated at the World Championships where she lost to Jiang Yanjiao of China. The same year Nehwal reached the final of 2006 BWF World Junior Championships where she lost a hard-fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan. She also competed at the Doha Asian Games.

In 2007, at a very young age of 17, Nehwal went on to take part in the All England, where she challenged experienced Wang Chen in round 2, but went down in 3 games 21–17, 13–21, 16–21. She represented India at the Sudirman Cup in Scotland. At the 2007 BWF World Championships, she won her opening matches against Jeanine Cicognini of Switzerland and 13th seed Juliane Schenk of Germany, but lost the next round to French Pi Hongyan with score 13–21, 17–21. She was a finalist at the Indian International challenge in 2007 where she lost to Kanako Yonekura in 2 games.

2008

Two years after losing the final to Wang Yihan, she became the first Indian to win World Junior Championships by defeating ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21–9, 21–18. She participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she was unseeded. She began her fight with a win against Russian Ella Diehl (2–0) in round 1 and Ukrainian Larisa Griga (2–0) in second round. She became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals when she upset reigning Asian Games champion number four seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Nehwal lost a 3-gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. Nehwal was leading 11–3 in the decider but could not hold on against her opponent and lost the match by a 28–26, 14–21, 15–21 scoreline.

In September 2008, she won the Chinese Taipei Open 2008 beating Lyddia Cheah of Malaysia 21–8, 21–19. She was also a semifinalist at the China Masters Superseries after she beat reigning World Champion Zhu Lin in quarterfinals. Nehwal won the Commonwealth Youth Games by beating her compatriot N. Sikki Reddy in two games. Nehwal was named "The Most Promising Player" by the Badminton World Federation in 2008. She qualified for the season ending Superseries Finals which consists of most consistent players of the year. She defeated Pi Hongyan and Wong Mew Choo in early rounds. She lost to Tine Rasmussen in round 3. She entered semifinals but lost to Wang Chen with scores 21–15, 14–21, 16–21.

2009

In June, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series 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. Nehwal on winning the tournament said, "I had been longing to win a super series tournament since my quarter final appearance at the Olympics". She is at par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela Gopichand who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the super series.

In August, she reached to the quarterfinals of the World Championships, losing to the second seed Wang Lin. She qualified for the season ending Superseries Finals in December, where she lost the opening match to Wong Mew Choo (eventual champion) but won the next two group matches against Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Canada's Charmaine Reid. She again reached the semifinals of this tournament but went down, this time to Germany's Juliane Schenk. She won India Grand Prix tournament later in the year, defeating compatriot Aditi Mutatkar in the final with scores 21–17, 21–13.

2010

Nehwal became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of All England Open before losing to eventual champion Tine Rasmussen. Top seeded Nehwal reached the semifinals of Asian Championships, losing out to unseeded eventual champion Li Xuerui of China, settling for bronze medal. Her coach Pullela Gopichand advised her not put too much pressure on herself due to the overwhelming home crowd support.