Saina Nehwal, Best in the World, Made in India

A World No. 1 badminton player from India?

Ten years ago, anyone who followed Indian badminton even remotely would've laughed it off. Yes, India did produce a World No. 1 in Prakash Padukone. Way back in 1980. Yes, another Indian did win the All England title after him. Pullela Gopi Chand in 2001. A feat that got overshadowed by Harbhajan Singh's hat-trick against Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on the very same day. But nothing as impactful, impressive or even promising in several years after that. (Saina Celebrates World No. 1 Rank with Crushing Win over Hashimoto)

But sport has its own way of scripting history. A promising youngster from Hisar in Haryana, who had badminton players for parents, Saina Nehwal shifted to Hyderabad midway through her school years. Waking up before anyone else in her class to make it to badminton training to Govardhan Reddy, one of her initial coaches, often falling off to sleep on her father's scooter on her way back, but still managing to maintain her grades in school. That defined Saina's first few years, as she started playing junior nationals and satellite tournaments across the country. (Want to be the Best, Says Saina Nehwal)

He'd spent all his savings on his daughter's training, getting her shoes and racquets, but Dr Harvir Singh, an agricultural scientist, knew it would all be worth it. In 2006, Saina finished as a runner up in the Junior World Championships. But it was only in 2008, when she became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter final of the Olympics, is when the world sat up and took notice of Saina Nehwal. When she lost to Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti in 3 games in the quarter finals in Beijing, many told Saina this was her best shot at glory and fame, and she'd lost it. Saina still remembers those remarks.

But she knew, as did another man, that this was just the start. In Pullela Gopichand, Saina found the perfect mentor. And in Saina, Gopi found the ward who was forever willing to listen to him, to work as hard as he wanted her to, and follow the path he had chalked out for her future as a world class badminton player.

Under Gopi's tutelage, Saina blossomed. The Super Series titles started rolling in, starting with the one in Indonesia in 2009. By the next year, Saina had added four more Super Series title to her kitty, and a Commonwealth Games gold and a career high world ranking of 2 to go with that.

Saina Nehwal in action in India Open

© AFP

More girls around the country started picking up racquets, badminton tournaments started getting televised regularly, and in what is extremely rare for sportspersons in India who are not cricketers, Saina even had endorsements. Yes, she was truly a game-changer.

But there was no time to stand and stare. An Olympic medal had to be won. And win she did in London in 2012, a bronze albeit. A brief split with her coach was pointless, as she later admitted.

"I realised after leaving Gopi Sir that I could not move ahead without his help. So I came back to him, I don't know what had happened, but I want to say sorry now. This medal is my gift to him," Saina said after the Olympics.

The episode would return to haunt her in a couple of years though. The two years following her Olympic bronze saw Saina go through a very lean patch. She was losing to lower ranked players regularly, and was sluggish on court. Some or the other injury bothered her throughout. And it was during this time that a young and a very hungry PV Sindhu, also a protege; of Gopichand, was snapping at her heels. It didn't take the media too long to take their knives out, and start writing 'The End' to the career of a girls who had several firsts in Indian badminton.

They say that the mind can accommodate either worries, or faith. Not both. Saina chose the latter. And she had the guts to go with that.

In the summer of 2014, she took the decision of changing coaches in order to improve her game, and try something new. Indian badminton's most successful partnership was thus brought to an end, as Saina chose Vimal Kumar, former national champion and coach to guide and help her out. It was a bold decision in Saina's words, a risk that she was taking.

And boy did it pay off. In a new training environment with new players, and under a coach she was exchanging more ideas with, Saina was back. And on top of her game. By the end of the year, India's shuttle queen had won the China Open Super Series, crawled back from 9th in the beginning of the year to 3rd by the end of it, in the world rankings.

Now on top of the world rankings, the first non-Chinese to do so since Tine Baun in 2010, Saina has shown yet again, that she is still the best India has, and the rest have a lot of catching up to do.

Saina has learnt and honed her talent right here in India, under an Indian coach, and made things work for her, just on the basis of sheer hard work and dedication. Yes, it's come at a price. Hers is almost a monk-like life with no time or space for anything barring badminton.

But that's how the best in the world get there, isn't it?