[15] Previously, she had also received the nation's top two sporting honours, namely the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award.

[30][31] In 2005, at the age of 15, Nehwal has won an Asian Satellite tournament in New Delhi, beating Aparna Popat in the final in straight games.

Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, she went on to stun several top-seeded players including the then world number two Huaiwen Xu before defeating Julia Wong Pei Xian of Malaysia for the title.

[34][35] A few months after she entered the International badminton circuit, Nehwal participated at the World Championships where she lost to Jiang Yanjiao of China.

The same year Nehwal reached the final of 2006 BWF World Junior Championships where she lost a hard-fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan.

At the 2007 BWF World Championships, she won her opening matches against Jeanine Cicognini of Switzerland and 13th seed Juliane Schenk of Germany, but lost the next round to French Pi Hongyan with score 13–21, 17–21.

[38] Two years after losing the final to Wang Yihan, she became the first Indian to win World Junior Championships by defeating ninth seeded Japanese Sayaka Sato 21–9, 21–18.

[40] She became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals when she upset reigning Asian Games champion number four seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller.

She is at 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.

[52] Top seeded Nehwal reached the semifinals of Asian Championships, losing out to unseeded eventual champion Li Xuerui of China, settling for bronze medal.

[53] Nehwal won the India Open Grand Prix Gold, beating Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in the final and thus justifying her billing as top seed in the tournament.

[54] Nehwal, again seeded number 1, won the Singapore Open, by beating qualifier Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in the final with the score of 21–18, 21–15 having defeated World Champion Lu Lan earlier in the semifinal.

Second seed Nehwal, a tournament favourite, crashed out of the 2010 BWF World Championships in Paris after losing to 4th ranked Chinese Wang Shixian in straight sets 8–21, 14–21.

[57] As on 27 September 2010, Nehwal dropped to number 7 ranking after giving a miss to China Masters and Japan Open due to her preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

On 12 December 2010, she defeated Wang Shixian 15–21, 21–16, 21–17 in the final of the Hong Kong Open to win her fourth career Super Series title.

[61] Nehwal faltered after a good start as she lost to the then world number three Wang Xin of China in the finals to finish runner-up in the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold tournament.

[63] In the quarterfinals against China, Nehwal put up her best performance and beat the then world number two Wang Xin with 21–15, 21–11, but still the Chinese managed to move into the semi-finals with a 3–1 win over India.

In attempt to record a third straight win at the Indonesian Open, she reached the finals once more where she lost to Wang Yihan of China to finish as runner-up, on 26 June.

[65] During the season ending tournament 2011 BWF Super Series Masters Finals in Liuzhou in December, Nehwal won her all group matches against Bae Yeon-ju, Sayaka Sato and Wang Xin and once again reached the semifinals.

She created history by becoming the first Indian singles player to reach the final after defeating World number 5 Tine Baun of Denmark scoring 21–17, 21–18 win.

[67] Nehwal successfully defended her Swiss Open title by defeating Wang Shixian 21–19, 21–16 on 18 March,[68] a day after she turned 22 years old.

[69] On 17 June, Nehwal won the third consecutive Indonesia Open by defeating Li Xuerui, a player who was on 30 match winning streak with most dominant performance in the season so far with scores 13–21, 22–20, 21–19.

[80] She qualified for the season ending Superseries Finals held at Kuala Lumpur where she lost to Minatsu Mitani and Li Xuerui, but won the last group match against Bae Yeon-ju in 3 games.

[86] She contested at the Superseries Finals and won all of her group matches against top seed Wang Shixian (2–0), Bae Yeon-ju (2–1) & Sung Ji-hyun (2–0).

She defeated Cheung Ngan Yi and Sayaka Takahashi in early rounds and reached the quarterfinals where she faced Chinese Wang Yihan.

[92] She beat home hope Lindaweni Fanetri in the semifinal and created history by becoming first ever player from India to contest World badminton championship finals.

[95] She took part at the Season Ending Championships where she lost against Tai Tzu-ying and Nozomi Okuhara but won against Carolina Marín,[96] a player she struggled to beat in the whole year, in one of the group matches.

[152] She endorses Commune Builder,[153] Edelweiss Group,[153] Emami,[153] Fortune Cooking Oil,[154] Godrej No Marks,[153] Herbalife Nutrition,[153][155] Huawei Honor smartphone.

[156] Indian Overseas Bank,[153] Iodex,[153] NECC,[157] Sahara Group,[158] Star Sports,[153] Top Ramen Noodles,[159] Vaseline[160] and Yonex.

[167] Saina, a biopic based on her life, directed by Amol Gupte with actress Parineeti Chopra playing the title role, was released in 2021.