Nagpur's international shuttler Malvika Bansod went down fighting to World No. 7 and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu in the womens's singles final in Syed Modi International Badminton Championship at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, here on Sunday.
The 26-year old Sindhu beat 20-year-old Malvika 21-13, 21-16 in just 35 minutes to win her second title at the Super 300 event. She had won the tournament in 2017 as well.
It was also Sindhu's first BWF title since winning the BWF World Championships in 2019, after losing twice in the finals last year -- at the Swiss Open and the BWF World Tour Finals.
The two-time Olympic medallist raced to a 7-0 lead inside the first three minutes and kept the charge on to pocket the game quite comfortably in 14 minutes.
The second game saw a similar pattern with the world No 7 leading 11-4 at the mid-game interval. Bansod, the world No. 84, mounted a comeback and reduced the lead at 17-12 but the experienced Sindhu went on to seal the match in straight games.
Notably, this was the first meeting between the 20-year-old Malvika Bansod and PV Sindhu at the international circuit. Bansod, who clinched the All-India Senior Ranking Championships in December, had beaten the London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal at the India Open, earlier this month.
Malvika could have
done much better: Coach
While reacting over Malvika's performance in the final her coach Sanjay Mishra said, “ As Malvika generally plays, she could have done much better but while playing against the player like Sindhu who is a big name in badminton circuit she came under pressure. Now I come to know in which areas we will have to work in future. We will chalk out the plan accordingly”.
Meanwhile, Malvika has thanked her coach Sanjay Mishra and his team, sponsor Vishwaraj Infrastructure Limited, Go Sports, NDBA and MBA for their encouragement.