NAGPUR: Unnati Hooda took sweet revenge for her Hyderabad Open semifinal defeat as an unwell Malvika Bansod bowed out in the last four stage of the Odisha Open at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack on Saturday.
Haryana’s 14-year-old Unnati, ranked 418th in the world, scored one of her biggest victories so far, taking down 67th-ranked Malvika after a thrilling 50-minute clash 24-22, 24-22. Nevertheless, the left-hand Nagpur shuttler will bring home her second successive medal from a World Tour event. For her entry into the semifinal, the 20-year-old will win the bronze medal.
The thrill-a-minute semifinal clash of the BWF Super 100 tournament between Unnati and Malvika was a story of so-near-yet-so-far for the 20-year-old. While Unnati had an upper hand in the initial stage of both the games by taking an identical 11-5 lead at both breaks, Malvika made an incredible fightback on both occasions but missed that killer touch to close the contest.
Malvika committed some unforced errors in the dying stages and Unnati grabbed the opportunity with both hands to seal the fate of her senior opponent.
After being 11-16 down to bring the clash at par 17-17, Unnati didn’t give the lead to Malvika to close the first game 24-22 in 25 minutes.
In a thrilling second game, Malvika was down by as many as nine points (5-14) before she scored seven uninterrupted points to level the scores at 18-18 and then create two game points at 20-18. But Haryana’s rising star fought her way back and closed the 25-minute second game 24-22 to seal her maiden final berth in a World Tour event.
In the Hyderabad Open last month, Malvika had defeated Unnati 21-16, 21-12 in the semifinal.
In a chat with TOI, chief junior national coach and Malvika’s guide Sanjay Mishra said, “Due to some reasons Malvika was not well since yesterday and could not give her 100% in the semifinal as her movements were a bit restricted. For me, that is not a problem at all as she had a wonderful month and has a long way to go. Young Unnati too played really well today.”
For her semifinal entry, Malvika is set to gain around 3,800 ranking points and will scale a new high before she starts her journey as skipper of the Indian women's team in the Badminton Asia Team Championships slated to be played in Malaysia from February 15-20.
In the other women's singles semifinal, world No. 163 Smit Toshniwal upset fifth seed and higher-ranked Ashmita Chaliha 21-19, 10-21, 21-17 in one hour one minute to set up a summit clash with Unnati.
