Hylo Open 2024: Malvika Bansod Enters Women's Singles Final; Ayush Shetty Crashes Out

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Rising Indian shuttler Malvika Bansod entered the final in the Hylo Open 2024 badminton tournament following straight games win over eighth seed Julie Dawall Jakobsen of Denmark in Saarbrucken, Germany on Saturday (November 2).

Sixth-seeded at the Hylo Open Super 300 tournament, Malvika defeated Jakobsen 23-21 21-18 in a closely contested women's singles semi-final match that lasted 44 minutes on court 1 at the Saarlandhalle.

Malvika, who won the Azerbaijan International in February, will next take on another Dane in Mia Blichfeldt, who is seeded seventh, in the title clash on Sunday (November 3). This will be the first meeting between the duo.

While Malvika reached the final, it was disappointment for unseeded Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty as he crashed out in the men's singles semifinals, losing to fourth seed Christo Popov of France.

Shetty, world ranked 51st, started off well but lost steam as the match progressed to lose 17-21 13-21 to his world no. 28 French rival. It was the first meeting between the two shuttlers where the Indian came out second best.

Christo Popov will now face his brother Toma Junior Popov, third seed, in the final on Sunday (November 3). Toma Junior reached the title clash after his semi-final opponent Rasmus Gemke of Denmark retired mid-way through the first game, trailing 8-17.

This will be the second meeting between the French brothers in a singles contest with Toma Junior winning the previous clash - a semi-final match in the Orleans Masters 2022.

Earlier on Friday (November 1), India's 17-year-old Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj, who had upset second seed Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland, lost the quarterfinal round against Dawall Jakobsen.

Another Indian in men's singles competition, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran pulled out just before his quarter-final match against Christo Popov to hand the French shuttler a walkover.

India's top shuttlers like Lakshya Sen, who won the Hylo Open tournament in 2019, and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu did not compete in the BWF Super 300 tournament.