Hyderabad: Sameer Verma reached the men's singles quarterfinals of the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships with a 21-18, 21-17 win over Arif Ramadhan of Indonesia in Tao Yuan City, Chinese Taipei, on Thursday.
But for Verma the rest of the Indian squad including third seed PV Sindhu tumbled out of the tournament.
Verma faced stiff resistance from Ramadhan but the Indian lad kept his composure and prevailed in the end. He will now meet Ka Long Ng of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Earlier, Sindhu gave her heart out but failed to get the better of Yuki Fukushima of Japan 15-21, 21-18, 23-21 in the women's singles second round encounter. Sindhu took the first game at 21-15 but lost the second 18-21. She tried her best in the decider and had even saved a match point before giving up at 21-23.
However, Tanvi Lad sprung a surprise by reaching the third round. But the joy was short-lived as the Indian girl lost to top seed Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand 8-21, 5-21.
The other Indian girl in the fray, Gauri Ghate suffered a straight game loss against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 10-21, 18-21 in the second round.
Indian results:
Men's singles (PQFs): Sameer Verma bt Arif Ramadhan (Ina) 21-18, 21-17; Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (Ina) bt K Srikanth 11-21, 21-13, 21-16.
Men's doubles (Rd II): Russell Muns/Robin Tabeling (Ned) bt Hemanagendra Babu/Rohit Yadav 21-13, 21-14.
Women's singles (PQFs): Ratchanok Inthanon (Tha) bt Tanvi Lad 21-8, 21-5. Rd III: Tanvi Lad bt Airi Mikkela (Fin) 21-10, 21-11; Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) bt Gauri Ghate 21-10, 21-18; Yuki Fukushima (Jpn) bt PV Sindhu 15-21, 21-18, 23-21.
TOI