Who Is Malvika Bansod? The 20-Year-Old Badminton Champion Defeated Saina Nehwal

The badminton player from Nagpur, Malvika Bansod has made the headline today after she defeated former world number 1 Saina Nehwal in Round 2 of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open.

She becomes the second Indian after Olympic bronze winner PV Sindhu to defeat Nehwal in the international tournament. Post this, Bansod will be facing South Asian games medalist Aakarshi Kashyap in the upcoming quarterfinals match.

Who Is Malvika Bansod?

Bansod has been an ace badminton player since her early days and has also won titles in state tournaments. She has bagged the prize for the Under 13 and Under 17 groups during her childhood. She was also selected to represent India in World Junior Championship in Canada. However, she failed to qualify in the 2018 Asian Junior Badminton championship.

At Kathmandu in Nepal, she won the solo and group events in the famous South Asian Regional Under-21 Championship held in 2018.

In the subsequent year, the left-handed player, Bansod achieved an astounding feat after winning the title in the All India senior ranking tournament along with the All India junior ranking tournament in the country and a bronze medal in the Bulgarian Junior International Championship.

Her international debut was with a victory in Maldives International Future Series Badminton Tournament, following which she also won the Annapurna Nepal International Series Badminton Champion tournament defeating Gayatri Gopichand (badminton champion and daughter of badminton coach Pullela Gopichand) in a tight scoring match.

On December 31, 2021, she clinched the women's singles title at the All India Senior Ranking Tournament in Hyderabad after defeating the South Asian games medalist Aakarshi Kashyap. The 20-year-old holds the current world rank stands at 111 in the sports of Badminton.

Malvika Bansod even played for the Australian Open International Series in 2021. However, she was defeated in the quarter-final round by Clara Azurmendi of Spain and was disqualified for the subsequent rounds.

After the match against Saina Nehwal on January 13, she mentioned in an interview," She has always been my idol since I was a kid so it was dream come true to play against her in such a big event in Delhi. It has given me confidence for the next round."

Bansod also idolises Lin Dan from China who has been a former Olympic and world champion.