Malvika Bansod of India caused a huge upset at the ongoing BWF Super 1000 China Open tournament, defeating world no.7 and Paris Olympics bronze medalist Gregoria Tunjung in round one of the competition, on Wednesday.
Bansod, coming into this match with Tunjung as heavy favorites, defeated the fifth-seeded Indonesian in straight sets (26-24, 21-19), registering quite possibly the biggest win of her career yet.
The Indian started the game brilliantly and raced into an 18-12 lead against Tunjung and was all set to take game one but the Indonesian fought back into the game, winning eight of the next ten points and forcing a tie-breaker.
After a long tie-breaker, Bansod eventually emerged as the winner of game one. With a 1-0 lead, she did not let go of her momentum and like the first game, had a five-match-point advantage.
Tunjung almost saved them all but at 20-19, Bansod finally managed to get the match point and advanced to the next round.
In other games, doubles pairing Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand exited in the first round, losing 1-2 to Chinese Taipei duo P. Hseih and E. Hung (21-16, 15-21, 17-21).
They would be disappointed as they won the first game and had the advantage but faltered in the subsequent games.
The mixed doubles duo of Sumeet Reddy and Sikki also lost their opening game and exited the tournament, losing in straight sets to Malaysian duo P.J Lai and K.M Tan (10-21, 16-21).
(More to follow)