Seven days after her shocking loss at the hands of Chhattisgarh’s Aakarshi Kashyap, Nagpur’s Malvika Bansod made it a point to prove that she is a much better player than her rival and that loss in Yonex India Open in New Delhi was just a blip.

The change in venue (from Delhi to Lucknow) changed fortunes for Malvika as she stamped her authority with a crushing straight games win over Aakarshi in the quarter-finals of the Syed Modi International tournament at Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.

The 21-11, 21-11 victory over Aakarshi took Malvika to the semi-finals of the event where she will lock horns with Anupama Upadhyaya who beat Samiya Imad Farooqui 24-22, 23-21 in 46 minutes in the other quarter-finals. Malvika had said that she made too many unforced errors which cost her the match in India Open. She rectified those mistakes against Aakarshi during the 42 minutes encounter which was completely dominated by the left-handed Nagpur girl.

Malvika started cautiously and took time to settle. But once in groove, she took control of the first game and won it 21-11. The second game too was no different as Malvika used all her experience to win points at ease.

Aakarshi managed only 11 points and surrendered in 42 minutes.

If Malvika manages to beat Anupama Upadhyaya in the semis on Saturday she will, in all probability, take on top seed PV Sindhu in the final, on Sunday.

Sindhu will clash against fifth seed Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the other semis.