Juliana Vieira of Brazil was defeated in straight games by the Indian badminton player. The men’s singles challenge from India came to an end when Mithun Manjunath lost.
Malvika Bansod defeated Juliana Vieira of Brazil 22-20, 21-10 on Thursday in Saarbrucken, Germany, to move on to the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Hylo Open 2023 badminton tournament.
After defeating world No. 61 Juliana Vieira in 35 minutes, Malvika Bansod, ranked 51st in badminton, advanced to her first quarterfinal of the BWF World Tour 2023 season.
With Juliana Vieira storming to a 9-3 lead in the opening game, the Indian badminton player was in trouble. However, Malvika Bansod responded with six straight points to tie the score.
With a three-point advantage at 19–16, the Brazilian shuttler appeared to be the favorite to win the opening game, though. At that critical moment, though, Malvika Bansod mounted a comeback and won the next four points to seal the victory.
World No. 58 Mithun Manjunath lost to Hong Kong later in the day, sending him out of the men’s singles round of 16. World No. 19 from China, Cheuk Yiu Lee, won 21–13, 21–17 in 32 minutes.
In the opening moments of both games at the Saarlandhalle indoor arena, Mithun Manjunath put up a fight. But in the end, his challenge proved fruitless.
After trailing 16–13 in the first game, Mithun Manjunath gave up five points in a row and lost the second game even though the score was tied at 12-12. Malvika Bansod is the final challenger at the Hylo Open 2023 after Manjunath’s withdrawal.
The second game was an entirely different story from the closely contested first one. At 7-1, Malvika Bansod took the lead, and at 14-4, she increased it to 10 points before winning the match.
Malvika Bansod will play world No. 25 Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the quarterfinals on Friday.
The Hylo Open 2023, a BWF Super 300 event, will have results that will be used to determine the Olympic qualifying rankings for Paris 2024.
