Ace city shuttler Malvika Bansod will compete in the SaarLorLux Open Badminton tournament in Germany.
The Badminton World Federation Tour Super 100 tournament will be held at Saarbrucken, Saarland, Germany from October 27 to November 1.
The week-long tournament will be organised by the German Badminton Association.
Teenage sensation Malvika will be one of the two Indian women’s singles players participating in the tourney, which is the last BWF tournament of the year.
Reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain is the top seed in the tournament, while Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark is the second seed in the women’s singles draw of 32 players.
Malvika will take on Kristin Kuuba of Estonia in the first round on Tuesday. It will be the first meeting between the two players on the world tour. Malvika, who is ranked 162 in the world, will have to play at her best to get the better of 23-year-old Kristin, who is ranked world No. 59.
Nineteen-year-old Malvika, who is supported by Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited, is up against the tall Estonian and much experienced opponent.
India No. 2 Malvika reached Germany on Friday with her father Dr Prabodh Bansod after training under Sanjay Mishra in Raipur for a couple of weeks.
Ira Sharma is the second Indian in the fray. If both the Indians managed to win their respective couple of early round matches they could meet each other as they are in the bottom half of the draw.
In the men’s singles, Lakshya Sen has been given the second seeding. Maharashtra’s Subhankar Dey will be the sixth seed in the draw of 64 players.
Ajay Jayaram, Mithun Manjunath, Kiran George, Alap Mishra and Rahul Bhardwaj are the other Indians competing in the men’s singles. There are no Indian pairs in the doubles categories.
Courtesy: orangecitysports.com
