Putting his previous setbacks caused by injuries behind ace Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma lifted the men’s singles title at the Chinese Taipei Open on Sunday. In the finals, he crushed Malaysia’s Liew Daren. The prize money for the winner is $55,000. The tournament was held in the Chinese city Taipei.
Verma, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, fought to take the first two games and finally pulled off his victory after his opponent from Malaysia retired in the game. The cause of the retirement was a shoulder injury which the Malaysian suffered during the finals. The scoreline for this game is 12-10 12-10 3-3 .
This 23-year shuttler seems to have been third time lucky. Sourabh was previously runners-up at Belgium and Poland International challengers. In the Chinese Taipei Open, Sourabh finally got what he wanted and won a trophy after being away from games for almost a year because of knee and elbow injuries.
In an interview to PTI after winning the match, Sourabh said that he felt really great after his recent victory and also considered it as a “much needed one” after two runners-up titles at the Belgium and Poland international challengers. The shuttler said that he was disappointed at the outcomes in Poland and Belgium and was determined this time to win in Taipei.
In the finals in the China Taipei Open, this 24 old Indian shuttler began his first game well. At one stage in the first game, he was leading by 5-3. But his Malaysian opponent soon got the momentum in his favour with a five-point lead to take the scores to 8-5. However, Verma kept fighting and at five ten he got five straight points to clinch the opening game.
The second game posed a bit of a challenge to the Indian shuttler. Liew had the initial lead but the Indian shuttler upped the ante in the latter half of the game and got six consecutive points to take the second game away from the Malaysian. Liew seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by Sourabh’s grit and determination. A little into the third game, Liew retired citing a problematic shoulder.
Praising his Malaysian opponent, Sourabh said it was unfortunate that Liew had to leave the third game because of injuries although he was playing very well till then. According to Sourabh, Liew looked quite comfortable in the first two games and was having a healthy lead. Verma added that he started well initially in the first game but also confessed to having made many mistakes. Verma expressed his unhappiness at the fact that he gave away too many easy points to his opponent in the second game. However, he felt satisfied with having got control over his game eventually.