NAGPUR: India's fast rising shuttler Malvika Bansod made her world tour debut year more memorable.
In just over 300 days after she started the year with a career-high 67th ranking, Malvika achieved career-best 32nd rank among the women's singles shuttlers across the globe.
The icing on the cake for Malvika is a place above her idol Saina Nehwal, former world no 1. The Nagpur girl had defeated her in the quarterfinals of the India Open Super 500 tournament in January. While Saina is ranked no 33, Malvika with 32nd position is now India's best after World No 6 and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu.
In the rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday, Malvika jumped two places up from 34th to 32nd with a total of 37,310 points. While Saina remained stagnant at the 33rd spot after a poor finish in her last tournament at the Hylo Open in Germany, Malvika's quarterfinal finish in the same event in November helped her gain 3,850 points.
In the next five weeks, Saina lost 2,606 points to take her tally to 36,920 and helped Malvika finish the year marginally above her by just 390 points.
At the time when Malvika made her World Tour debut in January this year, she had 111th rank. Within 11 months, the 20-year-old jumped 79 places up to become India's best after Sindhu.
In her first ranking event in New Delhi where she defeated Saina, Malvika gained 5,040 points and earned 5,950 points for her silver medal finish after losing the final of Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament in Lucknow to Sindhu.
In the 20 tournaments that Malvika played in the year, she gained a total of 18,328 points to end her memorable year on a high.
