CITY’S pride and tournament top seed Malvika Bansod made her way to women’s singles final of the Italian International 2022 under way in Milan, Italy on Saturday night. The southpaw had tough two matches, both went to the wire, on penultimate day of the event. In the semi-finals, Malvika took one hour and eight minutes to beat compatriot Tanya Hemanth 12-21, 21-16, 21-15. After being one game down, Malvika pulled her socks for a thrilling win.

 

Earlier in the quarters, she got rid of Singapore Insyirah Khan also in three games. In that quartyer-final match also, Malvika looked out of sorts in the first game but lifted her game to finally win 11-21, 25-23, 21-13 in one hour and five minutes. In her first final of an international challenge event, she will take on second seed Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu. This is her second appearance in final after Syed Modi tourney and also second in Europe after Lithuania gold medal effort last year.