Sachin Tendulkar leads birthday wishes for Saina Nehwal

@Twitter

Indian badminton ace Sain Nehwal turned 28 on Saturday and many personages took to Twitter to wish her. 

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who had gifted Saina a BMW car following her bronze in the 2012 London Olympics, led the birthday wishes for the shuttler, along with former India captain Sourav Ganguly.  

Happy birthday, @NSaina! An inspiration to millions out there. Your contribution towards the sport has been immense. May you continue to reach greater heights of success in your life. pic.twitter.com/zssqu4sc3k — Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) March 17, 2018

Wishing the pride of our nation, @NSaina a very happy birthday. Keep up your great work  — Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) March 17, 2018

Saina has not been in good nick of late. Very recently, she crashed out of the All England Open Badminton Championships after losing to world number one and defending champion Tai Tzu-ying in the first round. Fourth seed Nehwal was no match for the Chinese Taipei player and lost in straight sets 21-14 and 21-18. 

Irrespective of that, there appears to be no dwindling in enthusiasm among her 'celebrity' fans on her birthday.  Cricket stars Mithali Raj and Shikhar Dhawan also got in on the act. 

Happy Birthday @NSaina :) have a wonderful year! — Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) March 17, 2018

Happy birtdhay @NSaina! Keep shining always! Have a great day — Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) March 17, 2018

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Bollywood star Suniel Shetty also wished Saina 'a very Happy Birthday'.

Warm birthday wishes to the badminton champion @NSaina. May God bless you with health and many more inspirational achievements. — N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) March 17, 2018

Happy Birthday @NSaina ! Keep Shining & winning glory! Stay Blessed. pic.twitter.com/TIP4YY4zDH

— Suniel Shetty (@SunielVShetty) March 17, 2018

Saina, former world number one, has won over 23 international titles, which include ten Superseries titles. Prakash Padukone and Saina are the only badminton players ever from India to have achieved the number one ranking in badminton. 

Saina, who lives in Hyderabad, was also the first to win an Olympic badminton medal for India. She was later joined by PV Sindhu who won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics.