Malvika goes down fighting to Spain's top seed Clara

Nagpur, May 30

City's talented shuttler Malvika Bansod went down fighting to top seed Clara Azurmendi of Spain in the quarterfinals at the Austrian Open International Series on Sunday.

according to the reports reaching here, the 19-year-old shuttler bounced back from a game down to grab the second game before going down narrowly 17-21 21-15 19-21 against world no 71 Clara on Saturday night.

Malvika had earlier defeated seventh seed Léonice Huet of France 21-9 21-6 in the pre-quarterfinals after notching up a 21-13 21-15 win over Czech Republic's Tereza Švábíková in the opening round on Friday.

Malvika had won the Maldives International Future Series on her senior debut in 2019, before claiming the Annapurna Post International Series in Nepal. She also won a bronze at the Bahrain International Series n 2019.Among other Indians, Mugdha Agrey and Anjana Kumari faltered in the opening round of women's singles.

Josefine Redkjer Jansen of Denmark upset third seed Mugdha 21-16, 21-18 in 28 minutes. Mugdha, who is World No.93, was stunned by qualifier Josefine, who is ranked much below (317).

Talking to Lokmat Times Malvika said, " I have no pressure while playing against top seeded shuttler. She was three to four years older than me and had lot of experience. However, my performance in the second round against seventh seed France shuttler LeoniceHute of France was memorable as she had recently performed well in the Spanish Super300 tournament last week and entered into the semi final".