Hyderabad Open: Sourabh Verma beats Iskandar Zulkarnain to reach final; top seeds Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy advance

Hyderabad: Reigning national champion Sourabh Verma entered the men’s singles final with a straight-game win over Iskandar Zulkarnain of Malaysia at the Hyderabad Open BWF Tour Super 100 tournament on Saturday. The 26-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, who had won the Slovenia International in May, beat Zulkarnain 23-21, 21-16 in a 48-minute semifinal clash. [caption id=“attachment_4778341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sourabh Verma. Image courtesy: Twitter @BAI_media[/caption] The seventh seeded Indian will face either Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew or Korea’s Heo Kwang Hee in the title clash on Sunday. Sourabh had won the Dutch Open Super 100 and Russian Open Super 100 titles last year. The top seeded Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy defeated Hong Kong’s Fan Ka Yan and Wu Yi Ting 21-12, 21-12 to enter their first final of the season. The Commonwealth Games bronze medallists pair will face Korean combination of Baek Ha Na and Jung Kyung Eun in the summit clash.