Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma storms into Vietnam Open final

Image Courtesy: Twitter/@BAI_Media

India shuttler Sourabh Verma booked his place in the final of the Vietnam Open BWF Tour Super 100 tournament after brushing aside Minoru Koga of Japan in straight games in the last-four clash in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday. 

The 26-year-old, who has not lost a game so far in the ongoing competition, survived a scare against Koga to eventually seal a 22-20, 21-15 victory in the thrilling semi-final clash of the men's singles event that lasted 51 minutes. 

With the win, Sourabh has now set up a summit showdown clash against China's Sun Fei Xiang, who defeated Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei 21-17, 21-16 to storm into the final. 

The Indian shuttler, who had received a bye in the first round, swept aside Japan's Kodai Naraoka and Yu Igarashi in the second and third round, respectively before he defeated home favourite Tien Minh Nguyen 21-13, 21-18 to reach the semi-final. 

Sourabh is currently the lone Indian survivor in the tournament after Siril Verma and Subhankar Dey lost their respective pre-quarterfinal and second round clashes. 

While Siril Verma was beaten by China's Lei Lan Xi 17-21, 21-19, 21-12, third-seeded Subhankar went down fighting against unseeded Malaysian Jia Wei Tan 11-21, 17-21 in the second round of the men's singles event.