Badminton Year-Ender: Top 5 shuttlers of the 2018 season

#4 Sameer Verma

When everybody hoped Kidambi Srikanth to continue his 2017 heroics, it was instead Sameer Verma who stole the show in Indian men’s singles badminton.

A prodigy on the junior circuit, the Dhar-born Verma had medals from the World Junior Championships and the Asian Junior Championships. But recurrent injuries prevented him from fulfilling the promises he had made early on his career.

It was finally in 2018 that it all came together for the Pullela Gopichand protégé. Verma emerged from the shadows of Srikanth and HS Prannoy to make a name for himself. The Swiss Open title triumph in February showed to some extent what was to come during the remainder of the year for Verma.

The journey wasn’t exactly very smooth for the next few months but it was the post-World Championships period that saw Sameer become the player that he was always supposed to be. With a spring in his steps and a newfound conviction in his abilities, Sameer won the Hyderabad International and remained in the hunt for a berth at the BWF World Tour Finals.

His speed and defence on the court were exemplary and Verma was a picture of calm even under the most intense pressure. That awarded him the Syed Modi International title for the second time in his career to push him into the final-eight at the World Tour Finals, where he reached the semi-finals.

With three titles and a spectacular debut at the season-ender in 2018, the World No. 12 Sameer has raised hopes that he definitely has more to offer.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Sripad