Malvika starts campaign on a winning note in BWF World Junior Championship

NAGPUR:

Malvika Bansod

launched her campaign in an impressive manner at the BWF World Junior (U-19) Badminton Championships at Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.

Pairing up with Deeksha Choudhary of

Chhattisgarh

,

Malvika

thrashed El Salvador's Katherine Sarai Lara Guzman and Camila Navas 21-5, 21-6 in just 20 minutes.

The new pair of Malvika and Deeksha hardly broke any sweat as they romped home in style in the U-19 girls doubles first round. The Indians completely dominated the world No. 682 duo of El Salvador to enter the second round.

Southpaw Malvika and Deeksha will now take on I Kuan Ao and Xue Xin Gong of Macau in the second round on Tuesday.

Nagpur's other two shuttlers Sourabh Kerhalkar and Ritika Thaker will be seen in action on Tuesday.

Sourabh and Deeksha will clash with Ricky Liuzhou and Cindy Yuan of USA in the U-19 mixed doubles opener on Tuesday.

The experienced pair of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi will lock horns with Li Wenmei and Liu Xuanxuan of China in the U-19 girls doubles first round. The winner of the Ivory Coast international tournament early this year, Ritika and Simran, world No. 498, are expected to stamp their authority in their maiden World Championship appearance.

The city trio of Malvika, Ritika and Sourabh could not get the chance to play in the team championship, which concluded on Sunday, but they are eager to perform well in their respective individual events.

Malvika, a student of Shivaji Science College, trains under Kiran Makode, while Ritika, a student of Hislop College, and Sourabh are the members of the Ajay Dayal Badminton Academy.