NAGPUR’S Malvika Bansod went down fighting to South Korea’s Sim Yu Jin in the Badminton Asia Championships under way at Ningbo in China, on Wednesday. Southpaw Malvika, who won back to back matches to qualify for the main draw, gave tough fight to her better-ranked opponent Sim before losing in two straight games in the Round of 32.

Malvika and Sim continued to exchange points in both the closely-fought games but the former lost 18-21, 19-21. The match lasted 39 minutes. At the time of filing of the report, doubles opening round match between city’s Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi and their second seeded Koreans Beak Ha Na and Lee So He was yet to begin.