Malvika Bansod, India’s lone representative at the China Open quarterfinals, had an unpleasant end to her great journey at this Super 1000 tournament in Changzhou, China on Friday.
She suffered a comfortable straight-game (10-21, 16-21) defeat against the two-time world champion and the fourth-seeded, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarterfinals.
Akane’s attacking and deceptive play proved to be too much for the young Indian as she couldn’t find a way out to defend the smashes from the Japanese.
Malvika still tried to fight hard and had a few good retrievals in the rallies but it was too big of an ask for her.
Malvika Bansod’s dream run at the #ChinaOpenSuper1000 ends in the quarters!
The Indian youngster found it tough to break down the tactics of world no.4 Akane Yamaguchi, ending her journey in the quarterfinals of the China Open.
Score: 10-21, 16-21 pic.twitter.com/bqIKn2V9ad
— The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) September 20, 2024
A dream run for Malvika
However, Malvika had an excellent tournament in China beating two higher-ranked opponents in the earlier rounds to become only the third Indian women’s singles player to reach the quarterfinal of a Super1000 event.
She started the tournament with a hard-fought victory over Paris Olympics medalist, Gregoria Tunjung of Indonesia, which was also her first-ever victory against the top 10 player.
She then followed it up with another victory against the higher-ranked Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the second round to book her place in the quarterfinal.