India's badminton sensation Saina Nehwal was Thursday declared the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for her stupendous show in 2009.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal rallied to register a scintilliating three-game victory over Shixian Wang of China to clinch her third Super Series title of the year at the Hong Kong Open in Wanchai on Sunday.
Saina Nehwal was made to sweat by American Beiwen Zhang before making it to the women's singles quarter-finals in the All-England Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Thursday night. The seventh seeded Indian ace needed an hour to quell the challenge of the American qualifier 24-22, 18-21, 21-19 in a second round match.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal cruised into the second round of the women's singles at the Asian Games after steamrolling Lydia Cheah of Malaysia in the second round in Guangzhou on Wednesday.
An upset stomach ruined her campaign at the World Championship last week, but Saina Nehwal is not too upset at missing the bronze.
A wrong umpiring decision dashed P Kashyap's hopes of a maiden Commonwealth Games final but Saina Nehwal and women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa assured India of silver medals after advancing to the finals of the badminton event in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Saina, who was looking good at the start of the season, was diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis with mild pancreatitis which affected her performance at the All England Championship.
Basking in the glory of a bronze medal at the London Olympics, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal says it was very tough for her to win the medal in a sport dominated by the Chinese.
Two-time champion Saina Nehwal staged a grand recovery to beat fourth seeded Xuerui Li of China in the final to win the Indonesia Open Super Series badminton tournament in Jakarta on Sunday. The World No. 5 Indian shuttler, who won the title back-to-back in 2009 and 2010, prevailed 13-21, 22-20, 21-19 in 70 minutes to claim her second title in two weeks, having won the Thailand Open Grand Prix last week.
Moments after pulling off the biggest title victory of her career, Saina Nehwal said the triumph at the Indonesian Super Series was a 'dream come true' but never expected it to come at such an early age. World No 8 Saina beat No 3 Chinese Lin Wang 12-21, 21-18, 21-9 in a 49-minute hard-fought summit showdown in Jakarta.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal clinched her second Super Series title, winning the Singapore Open with a straight-game triumph over qualifier Tzu Ying Tai in the final on Sunday. The top seed Indian ace needed just 33 minutes to beat Chinese Taipei's Tai 21-18, 21-15 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saina Nehwal continued her impressive run, progressing into the women's singles semi-finals with a straight-game win over unseeded Korean Lee Jang Mi at the Asia Badminton Championship in Wuhan, on Friday.
Anup Sridhar beat Bangladesh's Mostafa Jabed Mohammad 21-3, 21-9 in the men's singles.
Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of the All England Super Series badminton championship when she defeated German Juliane Schenk in straight games in the quarter-finals in London.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is in no hurry to become the World number one and said winning the prestigious Hong Kong Super Series title in Wanchai was as good as achieving the numero uno status as she had beaten some top players en route to her victory.
Bright, all smiles and confident, India's ace badminton player Saina Nehwal met a packed house in Delhi at the launch of her first autobiography, Playing to Win.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal is India's best bet to win a medal in badminton at the London Olympics but will have to work hard to overcome the domination by Chinese players, feels former great Nandu Natekar.
Parupalli Kashyap showed nerves of steel to shock world No 10 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark in an edge-of-the-seat men's singles match to advance to the second round at the Hong Kong Super Series on Wednesday. The Indian ace, who reached the quarter-finals at the London Olympics, prevailed 24-22, 20-22, 22-20 in 68 minutes, at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon.
Saina Nehwal guided the Indian women's team to a dominating 5-0 win over Germany to stay on course for a knockout berth in Uber Cup, but the men's team suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat against Hong Kong, staring at an early exit in Thomas Cup badminton tournament in Kunshan, China.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who has been training under Vimal Kumar for the last one week, wants the former chief coach to travel to Incheon, Korea with her for the upcoming Asian Games.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and newly-crowned world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the final in women's and men's singles badminton respectively at the 21st Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal may have hit global headlines with their big wins against China's superstars of badminton but sadly they have not made it into the state-run Chinese media, which played down their herculean achievement.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal stormed into the third round of the World Badminton Championships with an easy victory over Natalia Perminova of Russia, in Copenhagen, on Tuesday. The seventh seeded Indian ace needed just 31 minutes to dispose off Perminova 21-11, 21-9.
London Olympics bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal experienced the thrill of flying in an Indian Air Force aircraft, and described the experience as "dream come true".
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal turned in a superb display to stun world No 3 Xin Wang in the last Group B match of the BWF Super Series Finals in Liuzhou, China, on Friday. The world No 4, who had already qualified for the semi-finals, won 21-17, 22-20 in 39 minutes.
Saina Nehwal, who has been struggling to replicate her superb run of 2010 when she won three Super Series women's singles crowns as well as the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, seems fractionally slower on her feet this year, feels former badminton ace PrakashPadukone.
Saina Nehwal avenged her quarter-final defeat at the Thailand Open on Wednesday, beating Singapore's Juan Gu in straight games in the opening round of the Singapore Super Series. The World No 2 Indian ace needed only 40 minutes to pack off Juan, ranked 21, winning 21-14, 23-21 and registering her fifth victory over the local player.
World No 34 Ajay Jayaram beat world No 6 Sho Sasaki in his opening match of the men's singles at the Hong Kong Open Super Series. In the women's singles, defending champion Saina Nehwal thrashed local girl Tsz Ka Chan.
The victory at the Syed Modi International tournament in Lucknow helped London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal to surge two places to reach the seventh position in the latest world badminton ranking, released in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Olympic bronze medal winning shuttler Saina Nehwal has been handed a relatively easy draw in the women's singles section at the upcoming World Badminton Championships, scheduled to be held in Guangzhou from August 5 to 11.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal emerged India's lone survivor at the Japan Open after defeating Mingtian Fu of Singapore in straight games, in Tokyo, on Thursday. The fourth seed took 33 minutes to register a 21-17, 21-16 victory and enter the quarter-finals, where she will take on Juan GU of Singapore on Friday.
Indian ace Saina Nehwal survived a mighty scare from unheralded Ayane Kurihara of Japan before advancing to the quarter-finals of China Masters Super Series badminton tournament in Changzhou on Thursday. The fifth seed Indian won 21-11, 18-21, 27-25 in a marathon women's singles encounter that lasted 72 minutes, at the Xincheng Gymnasium.
Her troubling ankle completely healed, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal can't wait for the World Championships next week but conceded that months of rigorous preparation would count only if she gets into the rhythm quickly at the London mega-event.
It was heartbreak for India as ace shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Indian Open Super Series after a straight-game defeat to Japan's Ai Goto in the first round of the women's singles, in Delhi, on Wednesday.
Saina Nehwal returns to the court after a three-week injury lay-off at the Yonex All England Open Super Series on Wednesday. The Indian ace opens her campaign at the prestigious tournament against old French foe Hongyan Pi. World number 13 Chetan Anand, who also stayed away from the National Championships owing to a thigh injury, will take on Andrew Smith of England in the first round on Wednesday.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their epic Commonwealth Games summit clash
Saina lost 15-21, 21-23 in the women's singles match that lasted 37 minutes to crash out
Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal has set sights on attaining the world No 5 ranking by the end of the year, and "if all goes well, top the ranking by the year 2010". The world No 10, who is in Pune to participate in the 29th PSPB Inter-Unit Badminton Tournament, organized by Bharat Petroleum, said she "always dreamt of becoming world No 1".
Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu continued their winning run at the Malaysia Open notching up contrasting victories to reach the quarter-finals of the women's singles competition at the USD 550,000 Super Series Premier tournament.
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