Malvika Bansod confident of her journey to become World Junior champion

This is the second straight year that the Nagpur girl has qualified for the world junior championship. She shared a court in doubles with partner Deeksha Choudhari, who had lost in the round of 32 in Indonesia last year but Bansod now hopes to go for singles.  

“I think I could have beaten her under 15 because I had a lead of like 18-12, but then she also increased the pace of her game and started playing very well,” Malvika said. “The game went up to 26-26 before I managed to convert the last two points.” The second game was also a tight affair, as the 15-year-old Gayatri engaged Malvika in rallies before the latter came through 21-19.

After winning the first game comfortably 21-11, Malvika was trailing 17-20 in the second game as Gayatri again upped the tempo.

“I managed to make it 20-20, but then one silly error from my side and a winner from her side gave her the game. In the third game, I played really well and won by a comfortable margin. I had an eight-point lead at one point but she again stepped up her game and came up to 15,” she added.

“Two back-to-back titles was a record for me itself,” she said. “I’m playing well and am in good form so I’ll try to continue that up to the world juniors. I had a bad day in Tirupur and missed out, so I had focussed on these two tournaments [in Chandigarh and Panchkula] since long. I started training more specifically towards my weak points and modified my training schedule a bit. I’m happy I made it this time,” she added.