Following up her opening round upset of Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, Malvika Bansod kept her foot on the pedal to make her first HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 quarterfinal beating No.25 Kirsty Gilmour.

The Indian world No.43 scored her third win over Gilmour in five meetings to progress to a last-eight showdown at the VICTOR China Open 2024 with fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi for her best-ever career result so far.

“It feels great,” said Bansod. “I had actually dreamt of it when I came into the tournament, so I said, how would it be if I reached the quarterfinals? And I wake up and I’m top eight! So it’s a great feeling!

“It’s definitely the biggest win of my career. Yesterday I won against Gregoria. This is the first time I’ll be playing the quarterfinals at a Super 1000, so it’s a dream come true, the biggest achievement of my life so far.”

A difficult test awaits Bansod as she takes on Yamaguchi, but Bansod recalled their last match at the Badminton Asia Championships 2023, which was a close affair.

“This is the third time with her. I’ll hope for the best. I’m in good form, so I will give it my best. I had a close match in the second outing, I lost 25-23 21-19, so I hope to produce my best.”

Bansod, who turned 22 on 15 September, hoped her birthday luck would hold.

“It’s been a lucky week, and usually I play well in my birthday week. It’s going strong now. I had my birthday on 15^th, and now it’s 19^th. So I hope the luck will continue. Last year this time I played well at the Hong Kong Open, and I got selected to the Asian Games as well.”

Other Results

» Last week’s Hong Kong Open champions Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan crashed out in the second round to local hopefuls Li Yi Jing/Luo Xu Min 21-16 21-18.

» However, Malaysia’s Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun upstaged world champions Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae 21-18 21-19.

» Denmark’s Jesper Toft/Amalie Magelund outplayed Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing 21-18 21-18.

→ Results (Day 3)