Former National champion Sourabh Verma stormed into his first final of the season after defeating compatriot Mithun Manjunath in the $75,000 Russia Open Tour Super 100 badminton tournament here on Saturday.
The 25-year-old, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from injuries, beat Mithun 21-9, 21-15 in just 31 minutes to set up a title clash with Japan’s Koki Watanabe.
The young mixed doubles pair of Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor also continued its impressive run to enter the summit clash after beating the Malaysian combination of Chen Tang Jie and Yen Wei Peck here in a three-game thriller.
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The second-seeded Indian combo, which notched up a 21-19, 11-21, 22-20 win over the unseeded Malaysian pair in 58 minutes, next faces Vladimir Ivanov of Russia and Min Kyung Kim of Korea.
Arun-Sanyam pair exits
The men’s doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, however, couldn’t cross the semifinal hurdle as it lost 21-15, 21-19 to second-seeded local combo of Konstantin Abramov and Alexandr Zinchenko.
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Sourabh, who had won the Chinese Taipei Masters and finished runner-up at Bitburger Open in 2016, zoomed to a 11-5 lead at the break after opening up a slender 3-1 advantage early on.
The experienced shuttler continued his dominating run after the breather, moving to 15-6 lead and 20-7 advantage before pocketing the opening game.
In the second game, Mithun played better badminton as he grabbed a 6-4 advantage, before going into the interval with a slender 11-10 lead. However, Sourabh soon turned the tables as he moved to 13-11. At 14-13, Sourabh reeled off five straight points to zoom to 19-13. Mithun tried to put up a fight but Sourabh sealed the issue comfortably.
The results (semifinals): Men: Sourabh Verma bt Mithun Manjunath 21-9, 21-15.
Doubles: Konstantin Abramov & Alexandr Zinchenko (Rus) bt Arun George & Sanyam Shukla 21-15, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: Kuhoo Garg & Rohan Kapoor bt Chen Tang Jie & Yen Wei Peck (Mas) 21-19, 11-21, 22-20.