Hungarian International: Shuttler Siril Verma bows out, Indian campaign ends

The Indian campaign came to an end at the 43rd Yonex Hungarian International Championships 2018 in Budaors, Hungary on Saturday, with the quarter-final losses suffered by men’s singles shuttler Siril Verma and the top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg.

Verma, the 2015 World Junior Championships silver medallist, had begun his campaign at this International-level tournament with a fine 21-13, 21-17 upset win over the third seed Jacob Nilsson of Sweden. In the following round, he put up yet another strong performance to get the better of Belgian qualifier Julien Carraggi 21-12, 21-15.

In the quarter-finals, however, the eighth-seeded Zvonimir Durkinjak of Croatia proved too strong as he did not give any chance to the Indian and secured a 21-15, 21-11 win in just 28 minutes.

Harshit Aggarwal was the other Indian competing in the men’s singles category and he had succumbed to a three-game defeat in the first round earlier in the week.

In women’s singles, fifth seed Mette Poulsen ended the brave run of rising star Shikha Gautam with a hard-fought 15-21, 21-18, 22-20 comeback victory in the quarter-finals in exactly an hour.

The Dane had earlier accounted for the other Indian shuttler in women’s singles -- qualifier Tanvi Lad.

In doubles, the quarter-final defeat of the mixed doubles pair of Kapoor and Garg was costly as they had received the top billing. The pair had won the Iceland International in January, besides reaching a couple of finals. They were thus the favourites for the title but were stunned 15-21, 17-21 by the unseeded Danish combine of Joel Eipe and Mette Poulsen.

In men’s doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Saurabh Sharma went down fighting to the Polish top seeds Milosz Bochat and Adam Cwalina. The Indians squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-12, 18-21, 19-21 in a 54-minute battle.

In women’s doubles, none of the Indian pairs could cross their opening round hurdles.