Badminton
Sourabh Verma storms into final of Vietnam Open Super 100
Seeded second in the tournament, Sourabh Verma lived upto his lofty repute to eke out the Japanese without dropping any games at 22-20, 21-15.
India’s Sourabh Verma continued his fairytale run at the Vietnam Open Super 100 to advance to the finals after outclassing Minoru Koga of Japan. Seeded second in the tournament, Sourabh Verma lived upto his lofty repute to eke out the Japanese without dropping any games at 22-20, 21-15. With this win, Sourabh also maintained his invincible form in the tournament of not losing a single game so far.
After showing the exit to local favourite Tien Minh Nguyen in his quarterfinal clash, the Indian World No 38 put up yet another exemplary performance to seal the finals berth. The reigning national champion will face China’s Sun Fei Xiang in tomorrow’s summit clash. Sourabh is the last Indian in the fray following the ouster of Siril Verma and Shubhankar Dey earlier on Thursday.
In a match that lasted close to an hour, the Indian looked in ominous touch in the first game when he made light of the opponent in just 15 minutes with an array of impressive big smashes, cross-court drops and splendid net game. However, he was in for a surprise as Koga stepped up to the occasion, taking the game all the way to the wire before Verma secured it at 22-20.
The second game also didn’t go initially in the Indian’s favour with his opponent enjoying the lead for the most part of the game. The Vietnamese was brilliant with his cross-court smashes which left Sourabh gasping. However, Sourabh passed the test of endurance, skill and handling pressure intense situations with a touch of class by controlling the pace of the game in the crucial phase of the deciding game.
He didn’t repeat the mistakes of playing to the opponent’s strength of a rock-solid defence and engaged him in long rallies and net dribbles to take home the match. Earlier in August, Sourabh ended India’s wait for a men’s singles title in a major international event in 2019 after clinching the top honours in the Hyderabad Open badminton championship. The 26-year-old Sourabh defeated Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 21-13, 14-21, 21-16 in the summit clash that lasted 52 minutes.
