Malvika Bansod continued her rich vein of form as she came up with an upset win over Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun in the first round of the Arctic Open Super 500 badminton event in Vantaa, Finland on Tuesday.
Bansod had created a stir at the China Open Super 1000 in September when she beat higher ranked players Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and Kirsty Gilmour en route to a quarter-final finish.
On Tuesday, the 23-year-old Indian, now ranked 37 in the world, beat the world No 23 Sung 21-19, 24-22 in a match that lasted 57 minutes.
Bansod took a strong 8-2 lead in the first game, and later had another six-point lead at 16-10, but Sung clawed her way back into the match to level the scores at 17-17. Sung even managed to go up 19-18, only for Bansod to win the next three points on the trot to seal the first game 21-19.
In the second game, Bansod once again managed to open up a gap to lead 6-2, only for the Taiwanese player to level the scores at 6-6. Both players kept within distance of each other thereon, until Bansod had three match points at 20-17.
Sung saved all three points and had a game point of her own at 21-20, but Bansod managed to save that as well. Eventually, with Sung on another game point at 22-21, Bansod won three consecutive points to secure the match and move into the second round.
Also through to the second round in the women’s singles event is Aakarshi Kashyap, who beat Germany’s Yvonne Li 21-19, 21-14 in a 45-minute match on Court 3.
Teenager Unnati Hooda is also through to the Round of 16 after she beat Brazil’s Juliana Viana Vieira 21-16, 23-25, 21-17 in a 70-minute match.
Kiran George managed to secure a spot in the main draw of the men’s singles event after beating France’s Lucas Claerbout 21-16, 13-21, 21-19 in the qualification quarter-final, while the mixed doubles team of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath beat Estonian pair Mikk Ounmaa and Ramona Uprus 21-14, 21-9.
In the women’s singles event, PV Sindhu was making her return to the tour for the first time since the 2024 Paris Olympics in September. The return though was short lived for the sixth seed as she lost a 37-minute match 21-16, 21-10 to Canada’s Michelle Li.
Karunakaran was also in action in men’s singles, but lost the qualification quarter-final to France’s Arnaud Merkle 21-6, 21-13.
On Wednesday, George will play his first round match against world No 25 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei. Lakshya Sen will also be in action for the first time since his semi-final finish at the Olympics, with a first round match against Danish player Rasmus Gemke.
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