Saina Nehwal etched her name in India’s sporting history winning the country’s maiden medal from badminton and becoming the second Indian woman to stand on the podium after China’s Xin Wang retired hurt from the bronze medal play-off in the women’s singles event at the London Games.
At the London Olympics, Nehwal was seeded 4th in the Draw. In the Group stage she defeated Swiss Sabrina Jaquet (2–0) & Belgian Lianne Tan both in straight games. She reached the knockout phase where she defeated Dutch Yao Jie with scores 21–14, 21–16. She then faced Tine Baun, the no. 5 seed whom she defeated with 21–15, 22–20 scoreline. She afterwards advanced to semifinals where she lost to top seed Wang Yihan in two straight games 13–21, 13–21. On 4 August 2012, she won the bronze medal when Wang Xin retired from the match after an injury at 18–21, 0–1.
On 21 October 2012, she won the Denmark Open after defeating Germany’s Juliane Schenk. Nehwal successfully entered the finals of French Open, but she lost against Minatsu Mitani in straight sets. She participated at the season ending Superseries Finals. In the group stage, she lost to Tine Baun (1–2), won against Juliane Schenk (2–0) & lost the 3rd match to Ratchanok Intanon (0–2). She reached the semifinals but lost a well contested match to Li Xuerui of 3 games, 20–22, 21–7, 13–21.
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