Indian badminton player Malvika Bansod reached the semi-finals of the women’s singles event at the US Open 2024 badminton tournament in Texas, USA on Friday.
Malvika, ranked 49th in the badminton rankings, came back from a game down to beat two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The seventh seeded Indian badminton player defeated world number 22 Gilmour 10-21, 21-15, 21-10 in a match that lasted 57 minutes. She will face world number 38 Natsuki Nidaira of Japan in the semi-finals.
Malvika saw her third seeded opponent take the lead in the opening game of the match as Gilmour took a huge 9-1 lead in the first game.
Though Malvika found her rhythm and managed to limit the deficit to 16-9, the early lead proved to be too difficult to reduce. Gilmour won five of the next six points to take the first game.
The second game started on a close note with the shuttlers tied at 6-6. Malvika then managed to take a slight lead at 14-12 and then won the next four points to make the score 18-12.
Even though her Scottish opponent managed to reduce the gap to 19-15, Malvika kept her composure and won the second game to make it to the decider.
Malvika started the final game on the front foot and took a good 10-5 lead.
Gilmour managed to reduce the deficit to 14-10 before the 22-year-old Indian won the next seven points to win the match.
Meanwhile, world number 40 Priyanshu Rajawat of India lost 21-15, 11-21, 18-21 to 34th ranked Lei Lan Xi of the People’s Republic of China in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
In the women’s doubles event, 23rd ranked Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also lost to world number 35 Rui Hirokami and Yuna Kato of Japan in three games. The Japanese shuttlers won 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 in the quarterfinal match that lasted 73 minutes.
The US Open 2024 badminton, a BWF Super 300 event, will conclude on Sunday.