AMONG India’s top women singles players, Nagpur girl Malvika Bansod blew one game advantage to lose her first round match in the Badminton Asia Championships that got under way at Philippines capital Manila on Wednesday.

Playing at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex, Malvika raced to a 1-0 lead taking the first game 21-9 against better ranked Singaporean Yeo Jia Min. Somehow, Malvika could not maintain the same tempo as her opponent rallied back. Yeo took the second game 21-17 to take the match onto decider.

Malvika, once again, got her rhythm back and fought tooth and nails. But in the extended game, the Singapore player prevailed 26-24. The high-intensity match lasted 51 minutes.

Earlier in the afternoon, city doubles player Ritika Thaker and her Thane partner Simran Singhi did not pose any threat to the seventh seeded Malaysian duo of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.

The Indian pair lost their women’s double first round match 15-21, 11-21 in 27 minutes.