Nursing injuries for the better part of the past four seasons, Sameer Verma has obviously struggled to do justice to his enormous talent.
The 20-year-old former Asian junior finalist had a good run in 2011 that witnessed his biggest victory of the year coming against the then World No. 19 — Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus — on way to the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix event in Lucknow.
On Wednesday, as a player ranked 231 in the world, Sameer once again chose Vittinghus to hit the headlines.
The opening day of the $275000 Yonex Sunrise India Open badminton championship saw Sameer despatch the World No. 9 21-15, 21-17 to emerge as the brightest Indian performer.
Though Saina Nehwal and K. Srikanth posted expected straight-game victories to move into the second round, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, World No. 13 P. Kashyap battled from being two points away from defeat to prove his superiority over World No. 23 Jen Hao Hsu 21-16, 21-19, 21-18.
The day also saw the premature exit of World No. 18 duo of G. Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa. The Chinese pair of Ou Dongni and Yu Xiaohan, ranked 43rd, needed 32 minutes to prevail 21-16, 21-18.
Sameer, who now faces compatriot and qualifier R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, bounced back from 10-14 in the opening game by stepping up his aggression to win 11 of the next 12 points. In the second game, Sameer broke away from 12-13 and never trailed again.
The results: First round (involving Indians):
Men: H.S. Prannoy bt Misha Zilberman (Isr) 22-20, 21-8; Viktor Axelsen (Den) bt B. Sai Praneeth 21-4, 21-18; Lin Yu Hsien (Tpe) bt Anand Pawar 15-21, 21-17, 21-5; Hu Yun (Hkg) bt Ajay Jayaram 15-21, 21-9, 21-15; R.M.V. Gurusaidutt bt Lee Dong Keun (Kor) 21-14, 17-21, 23-21; Sameer Verma bt Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (Den) 21-15, 21-17; P. Kashyap bt Hsu Jen Hao (Tpe) 16-21, 21-19, 21-18; K. Srikanth bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (Tha) 21-17, 21-16.
Women: Saina Nehwal bt Riya Mukherjee 21-5, 21-13; Ruthvika Shivani bt Rucha Nikam 21-7, 21-6; Yui Hashimoto (Jpn) bt Sayali Gokhale 21-16, 20-22, 21-16; Riya Pillai bt Ekta Kalia 23-21, 21-15; Minatsu Mitani (Jpn) bt Kuhoo Garg 21-7, 21-7; Adrianti Firdasari 21-9, 26-24; Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt Saili Rane 21-9, 21-11; Cheng Chi Ya (Tpe) bt Mudra Dhainje 21-19, 21-14; Hsu Ya Ching (Tpe) bt Tanvi Lad 21-9, 21-18; Carolina Marin (Esp) bt Neha Pandit 21-7, 21-8.
