Early Life and Introduction to Badminton Essay

Saina Nehwal was born 17 March 1990 She was born in a Jat[8] family at Hisar in Haryana and completed first few years of her schooling from Campus School. She completed her schooling at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Vidyashram, NIRD campus, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Nehwal has a brown belt in Karate .She is an Indian badminton player who attained a career best ranking of 2 in December 2010 by Badminton World Federation. Her Father Harvir Singh initially worked in CCS HAU and they then had their residence in the University Campus.[9] He later shifted to Hyderabad & so Saina spent her growing years inHyderabad, India. Both her father, Dr. Harvir Singh and mother Usha Rani were former State Badminton Champions in Haryana, so she got the game of Badminton in her genes Her Father encouraged her to pick up the game of Badminton. The 8 yrs old Saina followed a very tough training schedule right since the beginning, and would travel almost 50kms a day for the training. She practised Badminton in Badminton Court of Faculty Club of CCS HAU located in the University itself Further, Saina trained under S.M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winning Badminton Coach, and now is receiving Coaching at the Pullela Gopichand’s Academy of Badminton at Hyderabad. She is India’s highest-paid non-cricketing sportsperson as on September 2012. National Achievement : Nehwal became the National Junior Champion in the year 2004, and won the title again in the year 2005. She was a runner up in the National Senior Championship 2005, and won the title in the year 2006, repeating the victory in the year 2007 again. Apart from these, she has won the All India Jr. Ranking Tournaments of the year 2005 held at Chennai, Cochin, Bangalore and Pune. She further won the All India Senior Ranking Tournament 2005 held at Mumbai, and also emerged as the winner at the National Games held at Guwahati. In 2006, Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open.[16] The same year Saina was also the runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, She did one better in the 2008 by becoming the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships Saina is on the 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 2009 she reached the quarterfinals of world championship losing to the second seed Lin Wang. Saina Nehwal was rewarded with Arjuna awardin August, 2009 and her coach Gopichand was also rewarded with Dronacharya award at the same time. International Badminton : Saina made her International Debut in the year 2003 at the India Satellite tournament where she reached the top-16 round. The same year, she won the Junior Czech Open tournament. Further, she reached the Quarter Final at the Cheers Asian Satellite tournament 2004 held at Singapore. She got her first International success at the India Satellite tournament 2005 where she emerged as the winner of the tournament. After this, she also claimed the Bingo Bonanza Philippines Open title in the year 2006, and the India Satellite tournament 2006. She played at the All England Open 2007, and reached the Pre-Quarter Final round where she lost to World No. 3 player from China. She also reached the Quarter Final rounds at the Macau Open tournament 2007 and the Dutch Open tournament 2007. In the year 2008, Saina won the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold tournament, and reached the Semi Final round of the LI NING China Masters Super Series tournament also. The same year, she created a history in the sport when she became the First Indian Woman ever to reach the Quarter Final round of the Badminton event at the Olympic Games. At the Beijing Olympic Games 2008, Later on, She became the first Indian to win a medal in Badminton at the Olympics. She is the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships and was also the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open with a victory over higher-ranked ChineseWang Lin in Jakarta on 21 June 2009. Saina won her second career Super Series title by winning the Singapore Open title on 20 June 2010. She completed a hat-trick in the same year by winning the Indonesian Openon 27 June 2010. This win resulted in her rise to 3rd ranking and subsequently to No. 2. Saina Nehwal won 2010 Commonwealth games gold in the women’s singles badminton event held in Delhi, on 14 October 2010.Later in the same year she also won Hong Kong Super Series on 12 December 2010. After experiencing a poor 2011 season, On 17 June 2012 she successfully reclaimed the Indonesian championship by beating China. It is her third Indonesian open title, having won it twice before in 2009 and 2010. Saina became the first Indian singles player to reach the summit stage of year-ending Super Series Finals defeating two-time All England champion and former World No. 1 Tine Baun in the semi-finals, a feat she repeated in the quarterfinals in the London Olympics 2012 . Though she lost in the semi-finals of London Olympics 2012 to Wang Yihan, she created history as she became the first Indian ever to win an Olympic medal in badminton. On 21 October 2012 she became the second Indian to win the Denmark open by defeating Juliane Schenk of Germany. There were many Indian supporters in the crowd which loudly cheered her each and every point. She acknowledged their support by throwing two badminton rackets at them after her win. She thanked God and her fans for the win. This was her fourth title of the year. This second Super Series Premier title fetched her USD 30,000 from a total purse of USD 400,000. The victory was sweet revenge for Saina who had lost in straight games to Schenk the previous year.[24][25] Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar presented a brand new BMW car to Saina Nehwal gifted by Andhra Badminton Association for winning a bronze medal at the London Olympics 2012.[26] HONOURS AND TITLES : Saina was named â€Å"The Most Promising Player† in 2008. Badminton champion Saina Nehwal was conferred with the prestigious Arjuna award for sporting excellence, in the year 2009 following her success at winning the Indonesian Open Super series title. The Arjuna award was handed over to Saina by the President of India, Pratibha Patil at the presidential palace in New Delhi. The Arjuna awardee is given a statuette, a scroll of honour, ceremonial dress and a cash award of Rs. 5 lakhs. Saina Nehwal won the prestigious Padma Shri award in Jan-2010 barely 4 months after receiving the Arjuna award in 2009. The award carries a medal, a scroll of honour and a cash prize of Rs. 5.00 lakhs. Saina was awarded with Padma Shri award in January 2010. Saina was also awarded the highest national sporting award given to a player, The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on 29 August 2010. The Khel Ratna award consists of a bronze statuette, citation and cash prize of Rs.7.5 laks for the award winner, and is handed over to the sportsperson by the President of India. [22] Saina is the brand ambassador of Deccan Chargers, an Indian Premier League team owned by Deccan Chronicle. She has also become one of the 8 brand ambassadors of 2010 Commonwealth Games held on New Delhi India.