Virat Kohli Salutes Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal after she announced her retirement earlier this week.
Indian batting legend Virat Kohli has tipped his hat to Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal on her retirement.
On Tuesday, Nehwal confirmed she had pulled down the curtains on her illustrious badminton career lasting over a decade after knee issues kept her out of action for nearly two years.
Congratulating Nehwal, Kohli wrote on X: 'Congratulations @NSaina on a legendary career that put Indian badminton on the world stage. Wishing you a happy, fulfilling and well-deserved retirement. India is proud.'
'I had stopped playing two years back. I actually felt that I entered the sport on my own terms and left on my own terms, so there was no need to announce it,' Nehwal said in a podcast, announcing her retirement.
The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, played her last competitive badminton match at the Singapore Open in 2023.
Nehwal became the junior world champion in 2008 and scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals in the singles event at the Beijing Olympics.
A year later, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title, clinching the Indonesia Open.
At the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games she won a gold, before becoming the first-ever Indian to win an Olympic medal in badminton, clinching bronze after reaching the semi-finals of the women's singles event.
In 2015, she became only the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to become the World No 1.
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