World number 31, Indian shuttler Sameer Verma on Thursday gave his best against Denish badminton player Rasmus Gemke to reach to quarter-finals of the Thailand Open. Sameer outplayed Gemke in two consecutive sets (21-12, 21-9) in a 39-minute long match to progress in the next round. The 26 year old player was looking very controlled toward his game and marched into quarter-finals of the tournament.
Sameer Verma had suffered an opening-round defeat to Sheshar Rustavito in the first round of last week’s Toyota Thailand Open. However, the Indian shuttler began his campaign in this week’s Super 1000 tournament with a win over 8th seed Lee Zii Jia 18-21, 27-25, 21-19 in a match in a match that extended to an hour and 14 minutes. Verma will next face 3rd seed Anders Antonsen in the men’s singles quarter-final.
Other than Smeer Verma Indian star shuttle PV Sindhu defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan on Tuesday and will face Malaysia’s Kisona Selvaduray on Thursday. HS Prannoy will also be playing his next match today on Thursday against Malayasia’s Daren Liew.
Earlier, Indian shttler B Sai Praneeth pulled out of Thailand Open as he was tested positive for covid-19. Meanwhile, mixed doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa won their 2nd round match, defeating Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 to move into the quarter-final. Satwik will be in men’s doubles action later in the day as he partners Chirag Shetty in their 2nd round match against 7th seeds Choi Solgyu and Seq Seung Jae of Korea.
