Hyderabad Open 2018: Sameer Verma vs Soong Joo Ven final, Live Score and Match Updates

Verma def Soong 21-15, 21-18 to win the Hyderabad Open

Updated: 09 September 2018 19:22 IST - Published: 09 September 2018 17:31 IST

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India finishes this tournament with two titles.

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.

Sameer trailed for most part of the first game. But champions always find a way to raise their level, and that is exactly what he did too.

Final score: Verma def Soong 21-15, 21-18 to win the Hyderabad Open

This is Verma's second title of the season!

He earlier won the Swiss Open, a Super 300 tournament in February.

And Sameer seals the win with a huge overhead smash!!!!

Sameer has match points now!

20-18

Body smash from Soong and he closes the gap to just one point!

Trails 18-19

It's 19-16 to the Indian now!

Some excellent defence from both ends in the shuttle going long from the Malaysian!

18-16 to Verma!

One huge smash down the middle by the leftie!

Soong trails 15-17

Sameer is rushing to the net and taking time away from his opponent.

17-14 to the Indian now!

Soong got one point back but it's Sameer all the way since then!

2 more points and he is up 15-12

And Verma is still looking very much in control!

It's 13-11 to the Indian

The Malaysian seems to have some discomfort at the knee and is getting treatment.

Verma still manages to go ahead to 11-10 at the midgame interval.

It's 10-10 now after the Malaysian started taking the shuttle early.

An error of judgement from the Malaysian!

It's 10-8 to the top seed

And Sameer has edged ahead now.

It's 8-7 to the Indian

And Soong doesn't want to let this go away so easily.

He comes back to level this at 5-5 and keeps it going.

6-6 now

And Verma has already surged to 5-3

It's 2-2 in the second game

What a comeback that was from the top seed!

Sameer absolutely dominating now!

Soong has no answer!

Sameer gets the first game 21-15

Brilliant netplay from the Indian now!

No errors anymore!

18-15 he leads!

And Verma is in control of the proceedings now!

He has gone up to 16-15

It's a two-point gap between the two now!

Verma trails 13-15 now

Yet again a smash from Verma after some brilliant movement!

Sameer trails 11-14

And it's a smash from Verma!

Sameer needs to stop the momentum of the Malaysian by varying the pace, if he wants to make a comeback.

Too many aggressive smashes from the Malaysian in this game!

He is 14-8 up

Sameer's elder brother Sourabh is looking on and is understandably a bit worried.

Verma gets one point back and trails 8-13 now

Soong continues to dictate play and be aggressive.

Sameer produces a brief fightback but the Malaysian is still up 11-7 at the midgame interval.

Finally a smash from the Indian here!

Trails 6-9

Verma is still making errors and looking very slow on the feet.

The Malaysian is up 9-4

Verma is error-prone in the initial stages of this match.

The shuttle goes into the net and Soong is up 7-4

Slowly trying to close the gap.

Verma trails 3-5

Verma is trying to make his way back into this game.

Trails 2-4 now.

Soong off to a flying start!

It's 3-0 to the Malaysian!

And live action has started!

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.