Meet Malvika Bansod, Indian badminton's hope in the women's circuit

India has given the badminton world plenty of superstars in the last decade and continues to do so.

While perennial stars like PV Sindhu, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy continue to shine, the younger generation has also begun to make waves on the global stage. And from this new crop of badminton players, Malvika Bansod is one to watch out for.

In her early 20s, Malvika Bansod made headlines after winning the silver medal at the 2022 Syed Modi International tournament. That, too, in her debut season on the BWF World Tour.

Malvika Bansod up against Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu

On her way to the Syed Modi International final, Malvika beat other upcoming badminton players like Aakarshi Kashyap. But in the summit tie against two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, she went down 21-13, 21-16 in 35 minutes. Nevertheless, it left PV Sindhu impressed.

“It was good she (Bansod) is an upcoming player and she is doing really well. She had some good matches in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. She played well and there were some good rallies," Sindhu said.

Before the podium-finish at Syed Modi International, Malvika Bansod defeated Saina Nehwal, her inspiration, at the India Open Super 500 event.

Malvika Bansod took only 34 minutes to beat the 2012 Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal 21-17, 21-9 in the round of 16. The youngster considers it one of the biggest wins of her fledgling career.

“Saina has been my idol because she has been the flag-bearer of women’s badminton in India for more than a decade,” Malvika Bansod said after the win.

“That’s the reason why I took up badminton. When I started out, I used to get overawed by her game, style of play and power,” she added.

The youngster continued her impressive run at the Odisha Open and won the bronze medal. With two podium finishes in three tournaments in 2022, Malvika Bansod’s career began to surge.

The Nagpur-born shuttler had grabbed eyeballs in the junior circuit for the better part of the last decade.

Born on September 15, 2001, Malvika Bansod picked up the racquet at the age of eight. She dominated the junior tournaments, winning several medals at the age-group and state-level events.

Following consistent performances and a string of podium finishes, including two golds at the South Asian U21 Regional Badminton Championship in 2018, Malvika Bansod rose to the top of the junior rankings in India.

Although the teenager was juggling between studies and badminton, she had set her mind on the sport. She pursued a degree in computer science from the prestigious SRM University in Chennai.

“Right now, badminton is the priority. I am putting in great effort and I am doing well,” Malvika Bansod had told PTI.

With that belief, Malvika was not only competing against much more experienced players but also beating them and setting records.

The left-handed shuttler won the All-India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament on her debut in 2018 and at 16 years of age, became the youngest-ever to win the event.

After training under Kiran Makode, Chetak Khedikar and Ajit Dayal, Malvika Bansod came under the tutelage of chief junior national badminton coach Sanjay Mishra

After that, Malvika won two more all-India senior ranking tournaments - in Kozhikode (2019) and Hyderabad (2021) - and clinched the junior title as well in 2019.

Malvika Bansod’s rise in the badminton rankings

After years of dominating national competitions, Malvika Bansod seamlessly transitioned into the international senior circuit.

In 2019, Malvika Bansod won her debut senior tournament - Maldives International – and followed it with another top finish at Annapurna Nepal International Series.

But the youngster knew she needed improvement if she was to challenge the big guns of badminton.

“Overall game development is required. Now I am 18 but to compete against older players, I will need more power and strength. My target is to break into the top 100 as early as possible,” Malvika told PTI in 2019 when she was ranked 458th in the world.

In the next two years, the youngster steadily climbed up the ladder with wins at the Uganda International and Lithuanian International. Malvika was picked in India’s squad for the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup in 2021.

Malvika Bansod is now comfortably sitting in the top 100 of the women’s singles world badminton rankings, gaining 50 places in January 2022 alone. She rose to a career-best world No. 28 in October 2023.

In 2023, however, Malvika suffered medical complications as a result of contracting dengue and typhoid and struggled with fitness, especially after the Asian Games. Tournament triumphs, thus, eluded the youngster.

Malvika, though, broke the drought in February 2024 after she claimed the women's singles title at the Azerbaijan International badminton tournament. On the way, she defeated compatriots Anupama Upadhyaya in the semis and Tanya Hemanth in the final.

In September, she defeated an Olympic bronze medallist for the second time in her career. At the China Open, she stunned Paris 2024 bronze winner Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in a hard-fought straight games.

Two months later she made the final of the Hylo Open 2024 in Germany but lost to Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt. However, reaching the summit clash made Malvika only the third Indian women's singles player after Saina and Sindhu to reach the final of a BWF World Tour tournament outside India.

Over the years, Malvika Bansod has proven she possesses all the tools to scale greater heights in the future for India.