Super Sunday for Verma, Kashyap
New Delhi, Feb. 25: Shuttlers Sameer Verma and Parupalli Kashyap made it a memorable day, winning the Swiss Open and the Austrian Open titles, respectively.
Verma dished out a clinical performance to outwit former world no. 2 Jan O. Jorgensen and clinch the men’s singles title at the $ 150,000 Swiss Open Super 300 tournament, at Basel on Sunday.
The 23- year- old from Madhya Pradesh showed great anticipation and technique and added power in his smashes to bamboozle Jorgensen 2115, 21- 13 in a lop- sided contest.
Verma, who had clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold last year and reached the finals at 2016 Hong Kong Super Series, thus lifted his first title of the season and joined Kidambi Srikanth and H. S. Prannoy, who had won the title in 2015 and 2016.
Up against Jorgensen, who made a comeback this season after missing in action for more than seven months following a heel injury, Sameer showed great touch and control to emerge victories in the 36- minute contest. Sameer opened up a 3- 0 lead early and capitalised on it to enter the break with a 11- 7 advantage. He never gave an inch to his rival to make a comeback.
In Vienna, Parupalli Kashyap clinched his first international title in over three years, beating Malaysia’s June Wei Cheam in the men’s singles final at the Austrian Open International Challengea. Kashyap, the second seed, saw off Cheam 23- 21, 21- 14 in a 37minute clash. “I haven’t won so many matches in a single tournament for quite sometime. So happy with my performance,” Kashyap said. — PTI