Earlier Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the men's doubles title. But Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy went down fighting in the mixed doubles final after having match points.
For the crowd, it was a sheer delight seeing their homegrown player win the title. Verma trains at the Gopichand Academy and winning the title in that very city must have meant a lot for him.
Good evening and welcome to the live coverage of the Hyderabad Open men's singles final. India's Sameer Verma is the top seed and is vying for the title here. He is ranked World No. 21 and faces Soong Joo Ven, placed 70 places below him at 91.
Verma is the clear favourite in this summit clash, because of his ranking and his form. He started the season by winning the Swiss Open -- a Super 300 title in February.
He hopes to carry that form into the final too and lay his hands on his second international trophy on the BWF circuit. The only thing that could bother Sameer is fatigue. He played a 51-minute long match against RMV Gurusaidutt in the semi-finals yesterday, which might have some effect on his performance today.
Even then, Verma is not expected to lose this, considering he already has two career wins over the Malaysian shuttler.
The Indian contingent is looking to win three titles at this Super 100 tournament, with Rankireddy-Shetty and Reddy-Chopra reaching the men's doubles and mixed doubles finals as well.