At the French Open Super 750 in Paris, Sameer Verma pulled off a major upset by defeating Indonesia's Anthony Ginting. It was a testament to Verma's persistence, marking one of his strongest international showings in recent times. In a tense first-round encounter on Wednesday, he took down the world No. 6 in three sets (21-15, 21-23, 22-20). The match lasted an hour and 17 minutes, with the 28-year-old Indian showing great determination. The climax came in the third game, where Verma fought back from an 18-20 deficit, saving two match points to claim victory.
Sameer Verma registered an upset win over Anthony Ginting of Indonesia at the French Open Super 750 in Paris. Verma’s never-give-up attitude helped him to deliver one of his best international results in recent years on Wednesday, defeating world No. 6 Ginting 21-15, 21-23, 22-20 in a hard-fought first-round battle. The 28-year-old Indian shuttler battled well and played with a positive intent to win the match that lasted one hour and 17 minutes. Verma made a remarkable fightback in the deciding game. He saved two match points after being 18-20 down.
This win allowed the unseeded Verma to get revenge for his loss to the sixth-seeded Ginting at the Swiss Open back in March, bringing their head-to-head record to a 2-2 tie. Verma now moves on to face Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the second round. Looking back at the match on court three, Verma started strong and dominated the first game. Ginting fought back to take a tight second set 23-21, but the world no. 31 remained composed, delivering a spirited performance in the decider to clinch the match.
On court three, Verma dominated the first game and cruised to win the opening game. But then, Ginting bounced back to snap the closely-contested second game 23-21. However, in the third game, the world no.31 Verma lived up to the challenge of the Indonesian and clinched the match with a spirited performance.
HS Prannoy also advanced to the second round after a tough three-set battle against Malaysia's Liew Daren in the men's singles. Playing on court one, Prannoy secured his spot with a 21-16, 16-21, 21-16 victory in a match that spanned one hour and 13 minutes. His next opponent will be China's Lu Guang Zu.
Wednesday also saw an all-Indian showdown in the first round, where Kidambi Srikanth dominated Lakshya Sen to enter the second round of the French Open. Srikanth, who took silver at the 2021 World Championships, proved too strong for the younger Sen, winning in straight games (21-18, 21-18) in a match that lasted 46 minutes.
This encounter was only the second time these two top Indian players had faced each other, with Srikanth also winning their previous meeting in the 2021 World Championship semifinals. Srikanth is now waiting to see who will advance from the match between Denmark's Rasmus Gemke and Ireland's Nhat Nguyen.
In the men's doubles category, the duo of M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were knocked out of the tournament after losing straight sets (15-21, 16-21) to the fifth-seeded Indonesians, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto. On a brighter note, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty recovered from an opening-game loss to defeat the Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior, 19-21, 21-9, 21-13 in their first-ever meeting.