Hyderabad: Malaysia’s World No. 91 Soong Joo Ven wasn’t able to finish the job by winning the Hyderabad Open title after a stellar run to the final. The Malaysian went down to World No. 21 Sameer Verma of India 15-21, 18-21 in the final of the USD 75,000 BWF Tour Super 100 tournament on Sunday.
The victory was Verma’s first title of the season and could serve as a timely confidence boost as the Indian player will be playing three back-to-back tournaments – the Japan Open, China Open and Korea Open in the next three weeks.
Meanwhile, women’s doubles unseeded pair Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen of Malaysia toiled for 63 minutes before losing to No. 5 seeds Ng Tsz Yau/Yuen Sin Ying of Hong Kong 18-21, 21-16, 14-21.
India’s men’s doubles pair and No. 1 seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty kicked off the finals by keeping the title at home with an easy win over No. 3 seeds Akbar Bintang Cahyono/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani of Indonesia 21-16, 21-14 in just 26 minutes.
Unseeded Kim Ga Eun of Korea came out victorious in the women’s singles final as she defeated No. 4 seed Deng Xuan of Hong Kong in a thrilling three-setter 21-9, 18-21, 21-17.
India’s mixed doubles number one seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra/N. Sikki Reddy were so close to winning the Hyderabad Open title as they were leading 16-9, 19-13 in the decider, before No. 6 seeds Akbar Bintang Cahyono/Winny Oktavina Kandow of Indonesia started chipping away at the Indians’ lead with a five consecutive points run in the third set to narrow the gap at 18-19, before winning the match 15-21, 21-19, 25-23.
