Russia Open | Sourabh Verma wins final; Mixed duo Kapoor and Garg falters

07/29/2018

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India’s medal draught finally came to an end thanks to World No. 19 Sourabh Verma, who defeated Japan’s Koki Watanabe 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 to win Russia Open. India’s mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg was, however, humbled by Vladimir Ivanov and Min Kyung Kim 21-19, 21-17.

Verma faced Watanabe in a close showdown that went right to the deciding game before the Indian emerged victorious. The Japanese started on top taking an early lead of 6-3 before dominating his Indian counterpart to lead 11-5 at the break. However, Verma had been exceptional in the campaign prior to it and use his confidence to cut the margin to one point after the break at 11-12. Watanabe, however, went on to take a five-point lead at 18-13, which looked unassailable at one time before Verma did brilliantly to draw level yet again at 18-18. However, The Indian looked out of steam eventually as Watanbe won three points on the trot to seal the first game 21-18.

After an extremely competitive affair in the first game, the second was expected to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats. But, Verma blew away his opponent with an all-out-attack that was too hot to handle for the Japanese. This time, Verma took an early 6-3 lead before going on to lead 11-6 at the break. However, he didn’t repeat Watanabe's mistake of letting the opponent back into the game and levelled the match up with an easy 21-12 win.

Watanabe got his short breather during the one-sided second game and was expected to come out all guns blazing in the decider. And he did just that by taking a huge 11-6 lead at the break, before letting Verma come back yet again to level things at 15-15. The Indian ace wasn’t supposed to let go of the chance this time and with the scores at 17-17, won four consecutive points to win the final.

The Indian mixed duo of Kapoor and Garg had started well taking an early lead into the game before the Russian-Japanese duo came to level things before taking the lead. However, Kapoor and Garg were tight on their heels unwilling to give an inch of space. After trailing 9-11 at the break, the duo leveled the score at 12-12 and 16-16, before going on to lead 19-17. But the experienced Ivanov and Kim showed nerves of steel to win four consecutive points to win it 21-19.

The second game was expected to be a close battle and after a discouraging loss in the first game, Kapoor and Garg were at their persistent best matching leveling things at 8-8 before their opponent went on to win three consecutive points to lead at the break 11-8. That was pretty much it for Kapoor/Garg, who, despite reducing the margin to one point at 11-10 and 13-12, eventually lost their way and ended up the losing it 21-17.

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