India’s Siril Verma stunned top seed Darren Liew of Malaysia in a hard-fought three-game contest but was later eliminated in the third round of the Vietnam Open badminton tournament in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.
The only Indian to reach the last eight was second seed Sourabh Verma. Sourabh had to dig deep twice in the day, first to get the better of Japan’s Kodai Naraoka 22-20, 22-20 in a match that lasted 54 minutes. In the third round, he was again pushed to the limits by another Japanese shuttler Yu Igarashi. The Indian defeated Igarashi 25-23, 24-22 in a match where he saved 5 game points overall, including 3 in the second game.
Sourabh will face Vietnamese veteran Tien Minh Nguyen in the last eight, and has a 0-2 record against him.
Siril, who is ranked 97th in the world, battled hard for 52 minutes to get past world No 22 Liew 17-21, 21-19, 21-12 in a second round duel. But, up against Chinese qualifier Lei Lan Xi for a place in the quarterfinals of the BWF Tour Super 100 tournament later in the day, the Indian’s campaign came to a close.
Earlier, it was curtains for third seed Shubhankar Dey, who suffered a straight-game 11-21 17-21 defeat at the hands of unseeded Malaysian Jia Wei Tan.
India’s campaign also ended in the men’s doubles event after the pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla lost 13-21 11-21 to top seeds Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han of Chinese Taipei.
