Badminton
Hylo Open 2023: Malvika Bansod wins in straight games, progresses to quarterfinals
Malvika Bansod beat Juliana Viana Vieira of Brazil in straight games to seal her place in the quarterfinal after a gap of a year.
Malvika Bansod is currently ranked 49th in the BWF World Rankings.
Malvika Bansod registered a straight-game (22-20, 21-10) win over Juliana Viana Vieira of Brazil to progress to the quarterfinals of the Hylo Open Super 300 in Saarbrucken, Germany on Thursday.
Malvika - ranked 51st in the world - fought valiantly to win the first game 22-20 after denying Juliana, ranked 61st, a game-point chance. The Nagpur girl came from behind to steal the opening game lead, winning six straight points.
In the second game, she maintained the momentum, collecting quick points and cruised to the next round on her first game point chance itself.
This was the first time she advanced to the quarterfinal on the BWF World Tour in more than a year. Her last quarterfinal appearance came at the Hylo Open in November 2022 where she lost to Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in straight games.
Malvika got a bye in the qualifiers and the first round, as her opponent Lianne Tan pulled out at the last moment.
Mithun Manjunath, however, exited the tournament, suffering a 13-21, 17-21 defeat to Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Sankar Subramanian and Kiran George made a first-round exit along with the women's doubles combo of Rutaparna and Swetaparna.
