Hyderabad: Young Indian shuttler Malvika Bansod defeated Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the women’s first round match of the China Open Super 100 Badminton Tournament and scored the biggest win so far.
Notably, Marika Tunjung won a bronze medal at the recently concluded 2024 Paris Olympics.
Malvika Bansod, who is ranked 43rd in the world, defeated Tunjung 26-24 21-19 in just 46 minutes.
Malvika’s win makes her the only Indian to qualify for the China Open Super 100 event.
Malvika will face Scotland’s Christy Gilmour in the second round after beating the fifth seed. Gilmour is a two-time Commonwealth Games medalist.
The 22-year-old’s game has been on the rise lately. In the year She won the Maldives International Cup in 2019 and finished 2nd in the Syed Modi International in 2022. In the following season, she won one cup and won the Azerbaijan International.
In the year In 2022, Malvika defeated 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal at the India Open, a victory that helped her break into the world’s top 30.
Hailing from Nagpur, Malvika has previously locked horns with some of the world’s best players, including world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi and former world champion Nozomi Okuhara. However, her win over Tunjung was the biggest win of her career to date.
Meanwhile, in the China Open Super 100 Badminton Tournament, Akarshi Kashyap lost to Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Pin Chin 15-21 19-21, while Samia Imad Farooqui failed to beat Malvika’s second round opponent Gilmore 9-21 7-21.
In women’s doubles, Teresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopikand lost 21-16 15-21 17-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Zhu.
In mixed doubles category B, Sumit Reddy and N Ciki Reddy lost to Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pi Jing 10-21 16-21, while Satish Kumar Karunakaran and Adhya Variat lost to another Malaysian pair Chen 14-21 11-21. Tang G and Toh Ee Y.
In the men’s singles, Kieran George lost to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-4 10-21 21-23.