She then won the quarterfinal, after making a stunning comeback against 4th seeded Ratchanok Intanon, when she was 3–12 down in Game 1 but eventually won it in 2 games thus made it to the semifinals. She made history by winning the first medal for India in badminton after a long wait of 36 years. She lost to Tai Tzu-ying in the semifinal, winning a bronze medal. She achieved a rare feat by winning medals from the quintet of badminton tournaments – the Olympics, the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Championships and the Asian Games. At the Denmark Open, Nehwal was unseeded. She defeated Hongkonger Cheung Ngan Yi scoring 20–22, 21–17, 24–22 in her favour. She then defeated 2 tough Japanese opponents in successive rounds; beating Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara. After an easy win against Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in semifinal, she met her arch-rival and the no.1 seed Tai Tzu-ying. In the past 16 meetings Tai had won 11 and Nehwal wanted to break that jinx but couldn't managed and went down by 13–21, 21–13, 6–21. Nehwal went into the finals of Syed Modi Badminton Super 300 tournament but lost to Han Yue of China. 2019 She won her first BWF Super 500 title, the Indonesia Masters, against Carolina Marín, after the latter retired from the court injured. Defending her national championship title in Guwahati, Assam, Nehwal refused to play her singles match citing poor playing surface, and went on to win the National Championship by defeating top seed P. V. Sindhu 21–18, 21–15. This was her 4th National title. Her consistent record at the World Championships came to an end after she lost to Mia Blichfeldt in pre-quarterfinal in 3 hard fought games 21–15, 25–27, 12–21. 2023 Saina Nehwal opened her 2023 season on the BWF World Tour at the Malaysia Open Super 1000, where she lost out to the world number 11, Han Yue of China in three hard-fought sets: 12-21, 21-17, 12-21. She then made successive Round 2 (R16) exits in the India Open and Indonesia Open. She displayed much better form in those tournaments, beating higher ranked Mia Blichfeldt, in front of the home crowd, 21-19 in the deciding game (to break a 5 match losing streak). She then lost out to third seed Chen Yu Fei in straight games. She appeared to be very positive about the 2023 season after her