All England Badminton Championships, Day 2: Sourabh saves two match points, enters second round

Sourabh Verma is known to be an obstinate opponent. On Tuesday, at the All England, he once again proved he is a tough customer by saving two match points against Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia to keep his campaign alive.

Verma, who had come through two difficult qualifying round matches, had three match points against Rumbaka at 20-17; but the Indonesian equalised and had two of his own. The Indian kept his concentration and pulled off a 10-21, 21-10, 24-22 victory and will next play Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, a match he might be able to win again, for Minh is not in the prime of his career.

It was a good opening day for India with Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and V Diju/Jwala Gutta winning their matches. Sindhu was impressive in a 21-13, 21-18 demolition of young Thai Busanan Ongbumrungpan (29 minutes), while Kashyap was just as authoritative in dealing with Chinese Taipeoi’s Jen Hao Hsu. The 43-minute match ended 21-17, 21-18 for the Indian, who will fancy his chances against seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan next. Ajay Jayaram, however, could not join his compatriots in the second round as he was outlasted by Wang Zhengming. Jayaram, who beat Zhengming at the Hong Kong Open in November, was beaten 15-21, 21-18, 21-10 by the former World Junior Champion from China.

V Diju and Jwala Gutta were back on court after Jwala returned from a long sabbatical. The two were in action for the first time since the Olympics, but they showed no signs of being rusty as they won their match against Peter Kasbauer/Isabel Herttrich in just 21 minutes, 21-9, 21-17.

Apart from Jayaram, the other Indians to bow out were Akshay Dewalkar/Pradnya Gadre and Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponnappa in the mixed doubles.