Asian players compete in the 2018 Syed Modi International Badminton Championship

From November 20-25, the 2018 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships took place at the Babue Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow, India. Organized by the Badminton Association of India and supported by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), this event at Syed Modi was a Super-300 level tournament part of the 2018 BWF World Tour. The BWF World Tour consisted of competitionsof different difficulty, specifically Super-100, Super-300, Super-500, Super-750, and the hardest Super-1000, each awarding winners with differing amounts of BWF points. Qualified players with enough points would then compete in the HSBC World Tour Finals. On the afternoon of November 25, the victors were declared. Sameer Verma became the champion for Men’s Singles, Han Yue won for Women’s Singles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto took the gold medal for Men’s Doubles, Chow Mei Kuan and Lee Meng Yean triumphed for Women’s Doubles, and Ou Xuanyi and Feng Xueying were the champions for Mixed Doubles.

A twenty-four-year-old from India, Sameer Verma is ranked third amongst male badminton players in his nation. As the champion of Men’s Singles in the 2017 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, Sameer Verma successfully defended his title this year.

Defeating Saina Nehwal, a three-time Indian Olympic badminton player with over 23 international titles, nineteen-year-old Women’s Singles champion Han Yue from Fujian, China proved herself to be a promising young athlete. Although her agility and stamina played significant parts in Han Yue’s victory over Saina, Han Yue also played rather skillfully. She often smashed the badminton birdie so that it landed just within the borderline or smacked it just over the net, making it somewhat tricky for Nehwal to return the birdie at times.

Twenty-two year old Indonesian Muhammad Rian Ardianto and his twenty-three-year-old partner, Fajar Alfian, have won multiple international tournaments over the years including the Indonesia International for 2014, 2015, and 2016, Austrian International in 2015, and the Chinese Taipei Masters in 2016. Earning the gold medal for Men’s Doubles in the 2018 Syed Modi International further added to their respective accomplishments.

Meanwhile, both twenty-three-year-old Malaysian Chow Mei Kuan and twenty-four-year-old Lee Meng Yean have earned several medals in junior championships, making their Women’s Doubles gold medal in the adult-oriented 2018 Syed Modi International Championship a big step forward for their badminton careers.

Finally, nineteen-year-old Feng Xue Ying from Guangdong, China, and her 190 cm tall twenty-four-year-old partner Ou Xuan Ying from Fujian became champions for Mixed Doubles. Their opponent certainly put up a tough fight in the first round of their match, with them winning only by a score of 22: 20. However, they triumphed strongly in the second round, earning a score of 21: 10.

Featured ImageSameer Verma rushes to catch the birdie.Courtesy of indiatimes.com

By Gracier Dai