‘Good learner’ Malvika creates a flutter in China

Having gone in as an overwhelming underdog, the Nagpur girl, who turned 23 on Sunday, presented herself with a brilliant birthday week by reaching the quarter-finals of her first Super 1000 tournament, in Changzhou.

Not by beating lower ranked shuttlers, who rarely make an appearance in such an elite tournament, but by outsmarting world No.7 and Paris Olympics bronze medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the opener following it up with a confidence boosting win over the much experienced, two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland.

“I have had so many close matches with the top 20 players in the recent season, like the one with (Japan’s former world champion) Nozomi Okuhara at the Syed Modi International last year and (Denmark’s) Line Kjaersfeldt two weeks ago amongst a few others. These losses helped me analyse my mistakes. I am glad I could implement them in these matches,” Malvika told Hindustan Times from Changzhou.

Malvika has been a known name on the badminton circuit, having reached six International Series – the lowest level of competition under BWF – finals, winning five since 2019.

But the southpaw first grabbed attention when she beat former world No.1 and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal at the 2022 India Open. A week later at the Syed Modi International, she made the finals of the Super 300 event – her only summit clash on the BWF World Tour – before losing to PV Sindhu.

The world No.43 reached multiple quarters and semis – and one final too at the Italian International – in 2022, which helped her rise to a career-best ranking of No.28 in January 2023 but that year saw a big dip in form following a bout of dengue after which she failed to clear the early rounds of several tournaments.

In addition, Malvika had to undergo change in coach as her childhood coach Sanjay Mishra was appointed the new secretary general of the Badminton Association of India (BAI). “Sanjay sir has been like a father figure to me. Since his appointment, he has been very occupied with professional commitments,” said the daughter of dentists.

After trying out a couple of coaches and academies, she then went to the Thane Badminton Academy to train under coach Shrikant Vad in 2023.

“Malvika is very reciprocative and a good learner. Her fitness, capacity and endurance are very good because of which she can last on court for a very long time. She has the desire to win and do well too,” Vad told Hindustan Times from Thane.

“When she came here, she was playing well but was lacking the confidence to finish off games. We worked on specific points. For example, her net game is very good but then she didn’t have a finishing stroke from the back court. I asked her to create an opening and then finish with a good attack. We fine-tuned some things like this.”

2024 started on a better note when she won the Azerbaijan International in February, reached the semis of the US Open in June before making the quarters of China Open.

“In China, the first win gave her the confidence in the next two matches. She did not commit mistakes and exploited the drift very well. She lost to Yamaguchi but has learnt a lot playing against a top-quality opponent,” added Vad.

Malvika, who idolises fellow southpaw and Chinese legend Lin Dan, said that certain changes in her game have resulted in better results this year.

“Of late I have shown goods retrieving skills and haven’t allowed my opponents to play their kind of game. At the China Open too I was able to control the shuttle well, in a stadium where the drift was very tricky to handle. My game has improved but I’d like to work on some tactical changes to get better,” said the world No.43.

This year, Malvika aims to break into the top 25 and continue “to maintain and improve my performances at the highest level”. She next plays at the Finland Open Super 500 tournament in October.