Hong Kong: The unseeded and unheralded Sameer Verma of India who participated at Hong Kong Open as a qualifier, capped his run of upsets by defeating Denmark’s World No. 3 Jan Jorgensen who had clinched the China Super Series Premier last week in the semi-finals of Hong Kong Open on Saturday.
Verma who is also India’s reigning national champion, was playing with incredible athleticism to quickly open up a huge 7-1 advantage in the first set. Nevertheless, Jorgensen managed to cut down the gap to 10-11 at the interval.
Jorgensen used his experience to made Verma run across the court but the young Indian was up for the challenge and managed to tie the score at 17-17. Verma then put Jorgensen away by winning the first set 21-19 after winning a video referral when Jorgensen hit long.
The second set started in contrasting fashion as Jorgensen became aggressive to maintain a comfortable 11-5 lead at the interval. But the young Verma refused to give up, clawed back to even the score at 12-12 and then saved 3 match points coming from 17-20 deficits to level at 20-20. The young Indian was surprising calm with pressure mounting, engaging in some great rallies with Jorgensen and sunk down on his knees in celebration after winning the second set 24-22 when Jorgensen’s shot found the net.
“I tried to make Jorgensen cover all around the court, and I didn’t think too much prior to the match. I haven’t thought of tomorrow’s final. I did call my coach (Pullela Gopichand) yesterday, he told me to stay calm,” said Verma.
“My idol is Lin Dan, he is really a legend,” added Verma.
Verma will take on local favorite Angus Ng Ka Long for the men’s singles title.
In men’s doubles, Denmark’s No 4 seeds Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen comfortably outlasted Mohammad Ahsan/Rian Agung Saputro 21-18, 21-11 to cruise into the final. They will play Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan who shocked No. 2 seeds Chai Biao/Hong Wei of China 21-15, 19-21, 21-17 in other men’s semi-finals.
