Sameer Verma continued his fine recent form as he defeated Korea’s Dong Keun Lee to advance to the second round of French Open badminton on Tuesday.
Verma who had stunned world No 3 Anders Antonsen at Denmark Open before a calf injury forced him to retire from the quarter-finals against Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto, saw off the challenge of Lee fairly comfortably beating him 21-14, 21-12 in Paris.
Ranked 31 places above his opponent, the Indian dominated from start to end to register an impressive win and will face Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito in the next round.
However, the mixed-doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and N Sikki Reddy are defeated in straight games by world No 8 pairing of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh.
The Indian duo fought hard but were beaten by the superior Malaysian pair.
PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Pranoy, Lakshya Sen and Sourabh Verma will be in singles action on Wednesday, while Ashwini Ponnappa-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Jakkampudi Meghana-Poorvisha Ram, Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy, MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy will be in doubles action.
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