Malvika Bansod will lead the Indian youth team in Hylo Open 2024
Hylo Open 2024: In the absence of top Indian badminton players like two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, Paris Olympic Games semi-finalist Lakshya Sen, Thomas Cup star HS Prannoy, and 2021 World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth, the Indian young players will hope to take advantage of these opportunities.
Malvika Bansod, the country's second-highest-seeded player in women's singles will be competing in the BWF Super 300 competition. She'll be the center of attention when the youthful Indian team that begins in Germany on Tuesday. Malvika, who is placed 35th in the BWF world rankings, is the top-ranked player among the 11 Indian badminton players competing in this tournament.
In the absence of top Indian badminton players including the two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, semifinalist of the Paris Olympic Games Lakshya Sen, Thomas Cup star HS Prannoy, and 2021 World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth, this will be a great opportunity for the Indian youngsters to make the most of these chances.
Among the women, all eyes would be on Bansod, who reached the quarterfinals here last year. She will take on Bulgaria's Hristomira Popovska in the first round. If she wins the first-round match, sixth-seeded 23-year-old Malvika Bansod will go up against the winner between USA's Disha Gupta and Germany's Yvonne Lee.
The other Indian lot in the women's singles draw is Rakshitha Sri Santosh Ramraj, who makes her appearance against Chinese Taipei's Yu Chien Hui in the bottom half of the draw.
India has never won the women's singles title at the Hailo Open. The last Indian to win a title at the Hailo Open was Lakshya Sen, who went on to miss out on a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. He had clinched the men's singles 2019 title when it was a BWF Super 100 event. Last year, the men's title had gone to India's Shubhankar Dey while Chetan Anand had emerged as champion in 2008.
