China Open: Breakthrough for Bansod
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.
· DEV SUKUMAR
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.”