Won Over 24 International Titles: Saina Nehwal

   Saina Nehwal is an Indian professional badminton singles player. A former world no.1, she has won over 24 international titles, which involves 11 Superseries titles.

Saina Nehwal

She was born on 17 March 1990 in Hisar, Haryana, India. Her father, Mr. Harvir Singh Nehwal ,who has a PhD in agricultural science and her mother, Mrs. Usha Rani Nehwal. Her father was promoted and transferred from Haryana to Hyderabad. Her mother was a State level badminton player in Haryana. Saina took up badminton to fulfill her mother's dream of becoming a national level badminton player.

She trained under Pullela Gopichand in his academy in 2014 parted company with Gopichand and joined Prakash Padukone Badminton  Academy in Banglore.

In 2006, She created history by winning the 'Asian Satellelite Badminton Tournament'. At the age of 16, she became the first Indian woman and the youngest player from Asia to win a 4-star tournament-the Phillippines Open.

In 2007, she won her opening matches at BWF World Championships against Jeanine Cicognini of Switzerland. 

In 2008, she became first Indian to win World Junior Badminton Championships by deafeating Sayaka Sato. She won the Chinese Taipei Open beating Lydia Cheah Li Ya of Malaysia.

In 2009, 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. 

 In 2010, She became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of All-England.  Nehwal won the India Open Grand Prix Gold, beating Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in the final.

Nehwal reached a career high world ranking of No.2 only behind Wang Yihan of China. 

Nehwal was awarded by the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award and by top two Sporting honours, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award.