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India's Malvika Bansod will be in action in the final of women's singles competition at the ongoing Hylo Open badminton tournament on Sunday as she defeated Danish shuttler Julie Dawall Jakobsen in the semi-finals on Saturday.
It was, however, the end of the road for Ayush Shetty in Saarbrucken, Germany, as he bowed out of the men's singles competition in the semi-final, as per Olympics.com. Bansod. who won the match by 23-21, 21-18 will face another Danish woman, seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt, in the title clash on Sunday. It will be the Indian badminton player's second-ever final appearance on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour after finishing runners up to PV Sindhu in the Syed Modi International 2022 BWF Super 300 event. The Hylo Open, too, is a Super 300 badminton tournament. In the first game, world No. 34 Malvika Bansod, seeded sixth, found herself trailing 13-7 against Julie Dawall Jakobsen, who is 38th in the badminton rankings and eighth seed. The 23-year-old Malvika, however, fought back with purpose to edge out her opponent, three years her senior, to take the lead. The second game saw Malvika take the attack to Jakobsen from the get go and build up a 15-7 lead before the Dane mounted a comeback to level the score at 17-all. Just when it seemed the match may be heading into a decider, Malvika found an extra gear at the crucial juncture to wrap up the contest in 44 minutes. Malvika has been in good form this year. She won the Azerbaijan International in February and reached the US Open semi-finals in June. She stunned the Paris 2024 bronze medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia en route to the quarter-finals at the China Open. Paris 2024 Olympics semi-finalist Lakshya Sen was the last Indian to win a title at the Hylo Open back in 2019. In the men's singles, 19-year-old Ayush Shetty, who won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships last year, crashed out after a 21-17, 21-13 loss to France's Christo Popov. Shetty, 51st in the world rankings, stretched the battle to 49 minutes against world No. 28 Christo, who will face brother Toma Junior in the final on Sunday. Toma Junior was up against Rasmus Gemke in the other men's singles semi-finals and progressed after the Dane had to retire midway through the match. (ANI)
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