Shuttler Sourabh Verma secures spot in main draw of Hong Kong Open

Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma on November 12 entered the men's singles main draw of the Hong Kong Open after winning both his qualifying matches. Sourabh defeated Thailand's Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-15, 21-19 and Lucas Claerbout of  France 21-19, 21-19 to make it to the main draw of the $ 400,000 tournament. The first qualification match lasted for 45 minutes with Tanongsak counter-attacking every time Sourabh took the lead. Sourabh, however, managed to stay one point ahead. At 8-8, Tanongsak took the lead but Sourabh chased to get back on level terms and won the game with a six-point margin. The second match was closely fought. However, he played very attentively and went on to win the game 21-19.

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Second match lasts for 47 minutes

The second match against Lucas lasted for 47 minutes. Sourabh had to perform his best to emerge victorious. Sourabh will be playing his first-round men's singles match on Wednesday. The other Indian players featuring in the men's singles main event will start on Wednesday. World No. 10 Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma, H S Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap will take part in the competition. On the other hand, Srikanth has a difficult opening encounter against the World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan, and Sourabh's brother Sameer will play against Tzu Wei Wanf of Taipei.

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Indian shuttlers to open their campaign in the mixed doubles

 B Sai Praneeth too has a tough opening round encounter against the third qualifier Shi Yu Qi of China, while Prannoy and Kashyap will take on China's Huang Yu Xiang and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. The Indian shuttlers will open their campaign in the mixed doubles event later on Tuesday. While the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa will face Thailand's Nipitphon Phuangphuapet and Savitree Amitrapai, and the combination of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will face third qualifiers  Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.

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