Russia Open: Sourabh Verma, Kuhoo-Rohan enter finals

Sourabh Verma. File Photo

Former national champion Sourabh Verma stormed into his first final of the season after defeating compatriot Mithun Manjunath in straight games at the USD 75,000 Russia Open Tour Super 100 tournament here today. The 25-year-old Indian, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from injuries, beat Mithun 21-9 21-15 in just 31 minutes to set up a title clash with Japan's Koki Watanabe tomorrow.

Young mixed doubles pair of Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor also continued their impressive run to enter the summit clash after beating Malaysian combination of Chen Tang Jie and Yen Wei Peck here in a three-game thriller. The second seeded Indian combo notched up a 21-19 11-21 22-20 win over the unseeded Malaysian pair in 58 minutes. They would now face Vladimir Ivanov of Russia and Min Kyung Kim of Korea in the finals.

Men's doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, however, couldn't cross the semifinal hurdle as they lost 15-21 19-21 to second seeded local combo of Konstantin Abramov and Alexandr Zinchenko. Sourabh, who had won the Chinese Taipei Masters and finished runners up at Bitburger Open in 2016, made a rampaging start as he zoomed to a 11-5 lead at the break after opening up a slender 3-1 advantage early on.

The experienced shuttler continued his dominating run after the breather, moving to 15-6 lead and 20-7 advantage before pocketing the opening game. In the second game, Mithun played better badminton as he grabbed a 6-4 advantage, before going into the interval with a slender 11-10 lead.

However, Sourabh soon turned the tables as he moved to 13-11. At 14-13, Sourabh reeled off five straight points to zoom to 19-13. Mithun tried to put up a fight but Sourabh eventually sealed the issue comfortably.

Also Read - Russia Open: Indian Badminton Players Continue Their Impressive Run

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