Hong Kong Open | Sameer Verma downs World No. 3 to enter final
Sameer Verma finally lived up to his talent to enter his first-ever Superseries final with a straight-sets win against World No. 3 Jan Jorgensen. Verma showed impressive poise under pressure even as both sets went dangerously close and edged out the Dane after saving 4 set points in the second set.
It was the perfect duel of sorts. On one side was Sameer Verma, the baby-faced former World No.1 from India. The Indian had failed to make a great impact on the senior circuit until now despite having shown glimpses of his class here and there to sit at World No.43. He was set to face Jan Jorgensen of Denmark, him of the flowing mane and Hell's Angels tattoos. The Dane had downed Olympic champion Chen Long in straight sets last week to win the China Open and was looking to repeat his success here. In contrast, this event had seen Sameer's first Superseries quarterfinal, first semifinal, and by the end of the match, he would enter his first final.
It was Sameer who started quick off the blocks as he went into a 7-1 lead in the first set with some lovely smashes. Although Jorgensen caught up with him and went ahead at 9-10, Verma came up with a lovely drop shot to draw par and then unleashed a scorching jump-smash from the baseline to go into the break with a slender lead at 11-10.
Jorgensen went ahead to 11-13, but Verma once again caught up to 13-13, thanks to a well-placed crosscourt smash. Verma won an important point with some great defending that included a diving return to again catch up at 16-16.
Jorgensen, by now, was unleashing his full array of attack, but Sameer's returns found him make some bad line calls gifting away points one by one. Two unforced errors from Jorgensen gave Sameer set points at 20-17. A 50-50 net play saw him miss the first, a long lob saw him miss the second, but Jorgensen sent one long after a long rally to give Sameer the set.
Jorgensen came out with much more attacking intent in the second and took a 0-4 lead immediately. Sameer, meanwhile, appeared to have been drained from the first set and slipped up with unforced errors to give a 1-7 lead to the Dane.
But the former World No.1 came up with a rally of his own peppered with some great backcourt smashes to close the gap to 5-7. Jorgensen shifted the play to the forecourt and tormented Sameer with his subtle
However, Verma displayed more of his first set defensive grit to rally back and with a lunging backhand return drew par with Jorgensen at 12-12.
Jorgensen once again moved to the net to once again go to 14-17. Sameer showed some great tactical play to catch Jorgensen out of position with a backhand drive to close the gap to 16-17, but the Dane garnered three set points at 17-20. Sameer saved the first two, and the third saw a prolonged battle that saw Sameer exhibit lunging saves to frustrate the Dane into an unforced error finally.
Sameer produced a great crosscourt smash to take
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