Former champion and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal suffered a 17-21 9-21 straight-game loss to her 20-year-old compatriot Malvika Bansod. Malvika, ranked 11🦩1th, took 34 minutes to see off the 🔥former world number 1.
Two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals but the promising Malvika Bansod ended her idol Saina Nehwal's campaign at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open in New Delhi on Thursday. (More Badminton News)
Former champion and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina suffered a 17-21 9🅰-21 straight game loss to her 20-year-old compatriot Malvika.
Malvika, ranked 111th,♛ took 34 minutes to see off the former world number 1, becoming only the second Indian to beat Saina sinc💯e 2017 in any international tournament.
"It was my first meeting with Saina Nehwal. She has been my idol since 🌸I started playing badminton. So playing against her was a dream come true and that too, in the Indian Open, on such a big stage.
"... A Super 500 tournament, it was a big achievem🧸ent for me, one of the biggest wins of my career so far," the 20-year-old Malvika said after her win.
Coming back from knee and groin injuries, Saina, who had won her first r꧒ound match on Tuesday, was happy with the her movement on the co🌟urt but said she had a lot of catching up to do on the fitness front.
"I was moving on the court but my fitness is still not where it sho🅘uld be. So I came here to see were I stand. My body is good but fitness level I need to work on,♐" Saina said, adding, that Malvika is "very good" in rallies and has a bright future.
Earlier, the top seed Sindhu had no problem di🌊s🧜patching fellow India Ira Sharma 21-10 21-10.
She will meet compatriot Ashmita Chaliha, who g🎶ot the better of french shuttler Yaelle Hoyaux 21-17 21-14, in the quarterfinal on Th🌺ursday.
Malvi🐓ka will next take on fellow Indian Aaka��rshi Kashyap in the quarterfinals.
Aakarshi had defeated compatriot Keyura Mopatin 21-10 21-10 in another w🍸omen's siꦯngles second round match.
In the other women’s singles pre-quarterfinals, third seed Jia Min Yeo of Singapore got the better of Anupama Upadhaya 13-21, 21-17, 21-12 while USA’s L♔auren Lam defeated Tanya Hemanth 21-18, 21-11.
World championships bronze medallist Sen also moved to the quarter-finals after defeating Felix Burestedt ♋of Sweden 21-12, 21-15. He will take on compatriot HS Prannoy in the last eight.
Prannoy received a☂ walkover as his opponent Mithun Manjunath withdrew from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19.
The men's top seed Kidambi Srikanth, doubles ♈player Ashwini Ponnappa, Ritika Rahul Thkar, Treesa Jolly, Simran Aman Singh and Khushi Gupta are the other players who had to withdraw from the tournament due to the positive 𒆙COVID-19 results, which led to several walkovers.
Sameer Verma's campaign also came to an end in the men's sing𝓰les as he retired midway during his🍷 second-round match against Brain Yang of Canada due to calf strain.
In the day’s other matches, men’s singles world champion Loh Kean Yew defeated Joo Ven Soong 21-12, 21-12 to reach the quarterfinals🎃, where he was also joined by Malaysia’s NG Tze Yong.
🎃In the men's doubles, the second seed pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated compatriots Shyam Prasad and S.Sunjith 21-9, 21-18 in 32minutes. They will now clash with the unseeded duo of Hee Yong Kai Terry an﷽d Loh Kean Hean of Singapore.