Sameer Verma knocked out of Hong Kong Open

Indian shuttler Sameer Verma ended his campaign at the ongoing Hong Kong Open after losing to Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the quarter-final of the men's singles event here on Friday.

The 24-year-old slumped to a 15-21, 21-19, 11-21 defeat to Cheuk Yiu ending India's medal hopes in the tournament.

Winning a total of 61 rallies in the match, the Hong Kong shuttler grabbed seven consecutive points in the match, as compared to Verma's five, to enter the semi-final round.

Verma did not get the best of the starts in the match as he opened the first game with a trail of three points. The defensive approach of the Indian shuttler did not help him in any way as Cheuk Yiu kept on extending his lead.

After some long rallies in the second half of the first game, Verma tried to make a late comeback but Cheuk Yiu was good enough to quickly wrap up the game.

A service error in the starting of the second game clearly indicated towards the missing range of Indian shuttler. With scorecard reading 10-11 in Cheuk Yiu's favour, both the players were walking on a tightrope. At this stage, Verma collected some quick points to take the lead and put his opponent under some pressure.

The local shuttler saved three game points to turn the course of the game but it was the Indian shuttler who managed to register a victory in the end.

The deciding game was expected to be a tight one but the same did not happen on the court. After the initial close contest, Verma could not match the speed of his opponent. With a lead of more than seven points, Cheuk Yiu was comfortably moving towards the victory.

Exhibiting brilliant badminton skills in the match, the Hong Kong shuttler claimed a well-deserved victory to enter the semi-final of the Hong Kong Open.

Earlier, ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth had also crashed out of the tournament after being defeated by Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in their last eight clash.