India’s latest badminton sensation Sameer Verma lost to NG Ka Long Angus in the Hong Kong Open Super Series final after giving the player from Hong Kong a tough fight. The final itself was intense and a hard fought encounter but had one of the announcers making a major goof up.
Sameer, who is ranked 43rd in the world, became the first Indian male shuttler ever to appear in a Super Series final earlier today. One of the announcers, however, made a major error when he hailed the 22-year-old as an Indonesian.
As the players were being introduced on the public announcement system before the match, the announcer called out, “Sameer Verma, from Indonesia..,”
Sameer, who defeated World number 3, Jan O Jorgensen, 21-19, 24-22 in the semi-finals, did replace an Indonesian in the main draw. However, this blooper did not go down well with the Indian fans as they took to Twitter to mock the incident.
In the final, Sameer went down before giving a tough fight. He lost the opening game 14-21 before completely dominating the second game as he won 21-10. However, in the decider, Long, who is the World number 14, upped his game to win 21-11.
Long thus became the home player to win the Hong Kong men's singles title. Nonetheless, fans will hope that this is only the start of the young Indian’s rise to the top. If his performance in the semi-final is anything to go by, Sameer will soon become the face of Indian men’s badminton.
