Sameer loses in Asia Youth badminton final

Lucknow: Top Indian junior shuttler Sameer Verma put up a spirited performance before going down to higher-seeded Malaysian opponent in straight games in the boys` singles final of the Asia Youth Under-19 badminton championships on Saturday.

Unseeded Sameer lost 15-21 17-21 to second seed Zulkiffli Zulfadli in 37 minutes at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy courts. Sameer, who won the boys singles U-19 title at the All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament at Haridwar in February, made his opponent work hard for every points but in the end, his efforts did not give him the desired result. The current India junior number one, Sameer kept the shuttle close to the nets but his rival won on the account of better smash winners. In a match that tested the nerves of both the players, Zulfadli hit 11 smash winners as compared to Sameer`s two. In the first game, Sameer and Zulfadli were tied at 15-15 after which the Malaysian registered six straight points to win the game 21-15. In the second game of the match, Sameer showed enough glimpses of his brilliance as he locked himself in a tight battle with Zulfadli. However, the Malaysian was not ready to take it lying down and he surged ahead when the score was tied 17-17 and thereafter didn`t give the Indian any more chance to recover. PTI