The extraordinary journey of Malvika Bansode in the China Open Over 1000 badminton championship saw her finally making it to the quarter finals. But the promising professional shuttler from Nagpur was unable to defeat two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi on Friday.
Malvika Bansode had a very good start inched her world ranking number 43 in the world in her match against Russia’s Alina Lakhova, the fourth seed of the competition in a round of 16.
After making 6 points in the middle of the 1st game, Malvika initially lost 10-21 in the first game.
Unnevertheless, Malvika was undauntable by the composure as she even in the second game displayed valour and stuck in a melee. Scoring four points in a row made it 15-19 from an intense position. But Yamaguchi, showing the rest of her experience, turned the match around with clever strategems and closed it to her 21-16.
It was a task for Yamaguchi who sealed the win with an impressive performance in just 35 minutes, putting an end to India’s challenge in this tournament as it has reached the later stages.
No one who saw the game will forget in a very long time the fantastic BWF Super 1000 the game even though they lost for Malvika makes her debut.
