Saina shocked, Verma wins title

LUCKNOW: Saina Nehwal’s hopes of winning her fourth title at the US $150,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships were dashed on Sunday after the London Olympics bronze medallist went down to young Chinese Han Yue 18-21, 8-21 in just 34 minutes.

However, Sameer Verma brought cheers to home fans by retaining the men’s singles crown after beating another Chinese Lu Guangzu 6-21, 21-19, 21-14 in a thriller. The win helped the world No. 16 Verma qualify for the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals 2018, starting December 12 at Guangzhou in China.

Other Indians in the fray, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy in women’s doubles, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men’s doubles, too lost in the finals.

Fourth-seeded Ashwini and Sikki lost to third-seeded Malaysian Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean in straight games 15-21, 13-21 in 42 minutes. Eighthseeded Satwiksairaj and Chirag showed some resistance in the second game before losing to second-seeded pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 11-21, 20-22.

World No 9 Saina found the 19-year-old Han a tough nut to crack even after putting her best foot forward in the first game. Runner-up at both Vietnam and Macau Open this year, Han didn’t look back after taking one-point lead at 6-5.

Though Saina tried to catch Han with perfect smashes down the line, the 2017 world junior championship silver medallist Han kept her superior rival at bay. Much was expected from Saina in the second game, but the 2017 Asian junior champion Han opened a 15-6 lead and raced to the title.