A gritty Sameer Verma defended his men’s singles title at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament in Lucknow on Sunday, after going a game down against China’s Lu Guangzu.
The world no 16 won 16-21, 21-19, 21-14 in a pulsating summit clash to lift the trophy for the second successive time even as Saina Nehwal, men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy all lost in their finals.
Sameer then brightened up what had been a dismal day for India with his never-say-die attitude to claim his third title of the season, following victories at the Swiss Open and Hyderabad Open.
The 24-year-old’s performance helped him gather enough ranking points to surpass Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto and grab the last remaining spot at the BWF World Tour Finals to be held in December.
Sameer played patiently, constructing the rallies with his repertoire of strokes to dominate early in the match. However, he lost the opening game. Sameer did not give up after that but instead looked more positive in his approach.
The second game saw some exciting rallies, even as Sameer strengthened his defence. He eventually went on to win the next two games to seal the gold.
If you missed the final, here is a short highlights clip from BWF:
With inputs from PTI