The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Sameer crunches Loh with his reflex defense
SAMEER VERMA might easily be India's finest shuttler to never qualify for the Olympics. But every once in a while he pops up on the circuit, and plays an enchanting match like a dream, to rephrase that question - why has the freakishly talented Madhya Pradesh player never gotten into Olympic contention.
On Thursday, surfacing at the Australia Open Super 500, Verma, known for one of the fastest defensive games, outgunned 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew on the Singaporean's best quality - speed. The Dhar Knight with his bat-mobil blur-reflex limbs, won 21-14, 14-21, 21-19 in a 62-minute thriller where he was flying on court as if he was surfing off some golden beach, to make the quarterfinals.
Loh prides himself on his fast-twitching speedy attack. But Verma beat him with pristine technique in strokes, often at double clip.
The modestly built and perennially under-funded Verma, whose entire career has been a struggle to turn up fit, has always needed to work hard to make his game look effortless. He has lightening quick reflexes, but the results didn't fetch up quickly. In 2018 he beat Kento Momota on way to winning the Swiss Open title, and handed out defeats at Denmark to Shi Yuqi and Jonatan Christie, now Paris gold contenders. But that was six seasons ago, and he's spent a dozen of those being held back by crippling injuries at recurrent intervals.
His game style - crackling but bruising reflex defense - takes a heavy toll on his body, but when he's fit like he was on the Melbourne Thursday, he can serve up a masterclass. His win over Loh is a perfect projection of where similarly-designed Lakshya Sen's current game ought to go. And India's other promising youngster, Priyanshu Rajawat vocally adores and idolises the humble Verma's oeuvre of stylised strokes. His patched back body never afforded him consistency, but Loh was reminded of just how dangerous Verma can be against top players.
The former World No 14's vintage defensive style comprises whiplash wristy flicks from below the tape that travel deep into opponent courts. Verma also has some ridiculous body-defense parries and low sideways diving retrieves, and he was bouncing away against Loh in the opener, taking it 21-14. Sen makes these look spectacular, while Sameer, the OG, is just nonchalant. What helped Verma keep Loh, quite the hopping bunny himself, quiet on court, was taking the shuttle high and early.
At the net, Loh was boggled, because Verma doesn't dribble tight angles. He imparts awkward spin spells on regulation hairpin net exchanges and floats the shuttle, and the taller Singaporean just couldn't flick it back, dumping it in the net. Loh would respond with his trademark down the line quick smashes and level the set scores, but he was struggling to plainly power past and hit through Verma.
The 29-year-old Indian fell behind 3-9 and 5-11 in the decider, and a nondescript outing loomed. But at change of ends, playing from the seemingly non-advantageous side, Sameer would ambush Loh for 7 straight points in a phase that witnessed supreme shot-making, tweaking the angles, varying the pace within a rally, while he glided around the court and cut off Loh's options of playing to the centre.
Sameer Verma routinely logs some of the highest defensive winners that once stopped Momota's 60-match win streak. But against Loh, even after receding 14-16 down, he brought out the attacking verve with cross drops and smashes struck from the centre of the court. Loh can counter with power smashes, but Verma starved him off pace with clever lofted shuttles. It was his splitsecond defensive returns though that punctured Loh's confidence in his own quick smashes, and the Singaporean detests when his monster hits get retrieved. Verma was sending them back - quick and querulous.
Down 18-19, Verma charged the net with a short smash and then played 2 exquisite points, prancing like he was a prodigious 19year-old, not 29, to pocket a pretty win. Briefly, amidst his disappearing absences from international badminton, Sameer Verma showed there could be beauty in his game beyond the breakdowns.