Italian International 2022: Malvika Bansod settles for silver

June 6, 2022

Indian shuttling youngster Malvika Bansod concluded her campaign at the Italian International 2022 tournament as a runner-up, losing the women’s singles summit clash to Taiwan’s Wen Chi Hsu and clinching silver in Milan on Sunday.

Bansod, a top seeded player at the tournament was overpowered in the match by the much lower ranked Hsu, who sailed into the final after her opponent in the semifinal retired halfway. The World No. 48 Taiwanese player dominated to a straight set victory, thrashing Bansod 21-11, 21-9 in 27 minutes.

The 20-year-old Indian, who won her quarterfinal and semifinal clashes back to back last Saturday, clinched her second BWF international silver. It appeared that the back to back three game matches a day before the final had taken a toll on Bansod’s performance in the summit clash.

🇮🇳’s #MalvikaBansod finished Italian International 2022 as runner up! 👏👏

Way to go, champ! 🙌@himantabiswa | @sanjay091968 #IndiaontheRise #Badminton pic.twitter.com/k6aimd6EiK

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 6, 2022

In the quarterfinal, Bansod played for an hour and five minutes to mark a 11-21, 25-23, 21-13 victory over Insyirah Khan of Singapore, before facing off in the same day against compatriot Tanya Hemanth in an all-India semifinal clash, defeating the teenager from Bengaluru 12-21, 21-16, 21-15 to reach the final.

The World No 53 had earlier finished second at the Syed Modi World Tour Super 300 tournament in Lucknow earlier this year, losing to PV Sindhu in the final. The loss to Hsu is also the second time Bansod went down against a Taiwanese opponent, her first being at the Wales International tournament last year.