The China Open Super 100 badminton tournament began on September 17 and runs till September 22. India’s shuttler Malvika Bansod stunned Paris Olympics bronze medalist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the first round of the women’s singles on Wednesday. Bansod, who is rated 43rd in the world rankings, showed incredible perseverance as she defeated world No.7 Indonesian player Tunjung 26-24, 21-19 in a 46-minute match, recording the biggest win of her career.
With a remarkable win, Bansod became the lone Indian survivor in the competition. Bansod awaits a tough battle in the next round as the 23-year-old Indian is gearing up to face Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour, a two-time Commonwealth Games medalist.
Fifth-seeded Tunjung began to fade in the opening game; the score was tied at five points, but Bansod eventually won 18–12. The Indonesian, though, made a powerful comeback to tie the game at 18–18. The young Indian still went on to secure the victory by saving three game points. Bansod dominated the first half of the second game and led 11-3 at the break. Even though the 25-year-old Tunjung made a valiant effort to tie the score, Bansod held her nerve to secure a memorable win.
Bansod was the only Indian to make it past the first round in the women’s singles; her fellow compatriots Aakarshi Kashyap and Samiya Imad Farooqui were knocked out in the opening round. Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Pin-Chian defeated Aakarshi in straight games 15-21, 19-21, while Gilmour defeated Samiya 9-21, 7-21, in a one-sided match.
Bansod, a Nagpur native and left-handed shuttler, made the move to the senior international circuit in 2019. She won the Maldives International championship and placed second at the 2022 Syed Modi International. She has been playing well this year, winning the Azerbaijan International title. Former India junior chief coach Sanjay Mishra once trained Malvika, who made headlines in 2022 when she upset 2012 Olympic bronze winner Saina Nehwal at the India Open and entered the world’s top 30.
However, Malvika’s growth in her sporting career was hampered by health issues as she contracted dengue and typhoid following her participation in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. Malvika regularly faced top-ranked players in the first stages of world tour competitions following her recuperation. She was able to stay in the top 50 in the world despite early departures.
She has produced tough battles against top players like Akane Yamaguchi and former world champion Nozomi Okuhara in close games. Malvika is now improving her skills at the Thane Badminton Academy, where she trains with coach Shrikant Vad.
In other Indian results, the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost to Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu of Chinese Taipei with a scoreline of 21-16, 15-21, 17-21. In another close match, the women’s pair of Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda lost 11-21, 21-16, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing, while the mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 10-21, 16-21.
Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath went down 14-21, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei. In the men’s singles category, Kiran George fought hard but lost to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-4, 10-21, 21-23 in his opening encounter.
