What’s the story?
Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold champion Sameer Verma has announced on his Facebook page on Saturday that he had been suffering from a shoulder injury for the last two months from which he has just recovered. The injury necessitated his withdrawal from the Indonesia and the Australian Open Superseries events in June.
In case you didn’t know...
Sameer had a fantastic end of season in 2016 and he carried that form into 2017. One of the best talents from the stable of Pullela Gopichand in recent times, Sameer - the younger of the two Verma brothers - made it to the semi-finals of the Bitburger Badminton Open in early November.
He followed it up with a stunning show at the Hong Kong Open Superseries where he shocked the third seed Jan O Jorgensen before losing to NG Ka Long Angus in three games in the final.
At the Syed Modi International in January, he was simply unstoppable and cruised to the title, without dropping a game.
Even at the India Open a couple of months later, he made it to the quarter-finals with one of his victims being the fourth seed and current World No. 1 Son Wan Ho.
The heart of the matter
Sameer’s last tournament was the Singapore Open in April where he lost to Hu Yun in a tough two-game opener.
The injury, unfortunately, robbed the World No. 33 a chance to play at the Indonesia and the Australia Superseries tournaments where Indian men stole the spotlight. Now after six weeks of rehabilitation, Sameer has finally started practising and will be seen at the Canada and the US Grand Prix events this month.
What’s next?
The Canada Open Grand Prix is scheduled from July 11-16 while the US Open Grand Prix Gold will be held from July 19-23.
Author’s take
It’s heartening to know that Sameer will be back this month itself. With the Indian men performing so well, it will be great to have him back in the mix. If he can regain full fitness, there’s every chance Sameer’s racquet can do all the talking at these upcoming Grand Prix events.
Also Read: BWF Rankings: India now has 14 men and 7 women in top 100 of singles
