Three days after celebrating her 23rd birthday, Nagpur shuttler Malvika Bansod achieved her biggest career victory on Wednesday at the China Open Super 1000 badminton tournament. In the women’s singles opening round of the BWF World Tour event in Changzhou, Malvika stunned the fifth seed and Paris Olympics bronze medallist, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia, with a straight-sets win.
In a thrilling 46-minute match, Malvika navigated through some tense moments, but a strategic shift in the final stages of both games enabled her to defeat the world junior champion with scores of 26-24, 21-19. Malvika is now the only Indian remaining in the tournament.
According to a local report, Malvika’s big win over the world No. 7 is a huge boost for her, especially since she’s at the China Open without a coach. Her father, Prabodh, who was with her at the courtside, celebrated the victory with her. “I am thrilled to have defeated such a strong player in my first China Open. My aim is to maintain consistency in my upcoming matches,” Malvika said. She also talked about using lessons from her past losses to top players to help her win this time.
“I altered my strategy in the dying stage of both the games. Despite holding a 19-18 lead, I struggled to convert due to the drift, which I countered by varying my strokes, causing confusion for my opponent. The drift had contributed to some narrow losses against elite shuttlers, including world No.1 Akane Yamaguchi, in earlier tournaments. The lessons learnt from those experiences proved instrumental in my victory against Tunjung. I played strokes contrary to her expectations, and I am delighted to have secured one of my most significant career triumphs thus far,” she said.
Two years after making headlines with a stunning victory over Saina Nehwal, Malvika faced a setback when she was diagnosed with dengue and then typhoid. Despite these challenges, her fierce determination helped her make a strong comeback. She went on to win a bronze medal at the US Open and recently achieved another major triumph by defeating Tunjung at the China Open.
In the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday, the 43rd-ranked Malvika will compete against Kristy Gilmour of Scotland, a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist. The head-to-head record between the two players is tied at 2-2, with Malvika having defeated Kristy in the US Open quarterfinals in June.
Other Indian shuttlers, including Aakarshi Kashyap, Samiya Imad Farooqui, Priyanshu Rajawat, and Kiran George, were eliminated in their matches. In women’s doubles, the pairs of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, and Rutuparna and Swetaparna Panda, lost their matches in three games. B. Sumeeth Reddy and N. Sikki Reddy also lost their mixed doubles opening round match.