Malvika Bansod and Rohan Gurbani reach pre-quarters in Ukraine International series

Star shuttlers Malvika Bansod and Rohan Gurbani won easy victories on Wednesday to advance to the preliminary quarterfinals of the badminton tournament of the Victor Ukraine international series.

In the main draw of 32 players, both Malvika and Rohan outplayed their opponents in the women’s and men’s singles respectively.

Seeded second in the four-day meet, Malvika made light work of Ukraine’s Anastasiia Prokopovych in straight games 21-14, 21-3. After taking time to settle into her groove, the southpaw took Anastasiia apart in 21 minutes. She will next face compatriot Anupama Upadhyaya in the pre-quarterfinals.

In the men’s singles, Rohan registered a fluent 21-7, 21-9 victory over compatriot Anirudh Janardhanan in mere 18 minutes.

Earlier, Rohan made it to the main draw after playing as many as three qualifying games. In the qualifiers, Rohan outclassed three shuttlers from Ukraine without dropping a single game.

Rohan will next face unseeded Ukrainian Kyrylo Leonov, who stunned India’s fifth seeded Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-14, 21-19.