Sameer Verma eyes consistency

Newly crowned national champion Sameer Verma is now eyeing a “consistent run” on the international badminton circuit by remaining injury free.

A series of injuries hampered his career growth but the 21-year-old from Madhya Pradesh is happy with his performance after regaining full fitness.

“In 2012, I got injured many times. I had a back injury, I started playing and again I hurt my back in 2013. I worked on my strength and was fit again. But I had appendicitis in 2014,” Sameer was quoted as saying.

“I have been playing injury free since October 2014 and I am happy with my game. I won the Tata Open last year. I won at Bahrain. I reached the pre-quarterfinals at the All Englands. I then defeated the world no. 11 and now I am national champion. So, such performances have boosted my confidence.

“Initially, I wanted to play in Malaysia but then I spoke to Gopichand Sir and he advised me to play at the nationals and I am happy I could win the title this year. It was satisfying,” said Sameer, who defeated elder brother and 2012 champion Sourabh Verma 21-16, 21-16 in the final at Chandigarh on Sunday.

Sameer, who reached the final of the 2015 senior nationals, notched up some good victories last year, defeating the likes of Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen, China’s Wang Zhengming, Sho Sasaki of Japan and Hong Kong’s Hu Yun. He also achieved a world ranking of 35 after placed 262nd at the start of 2015.

A trainee at the Gopichand Academy since 2010, Sameer, who is currently ranked 38th, said: “I had some good performances after recovering from injury and I hope I stay injury free so that I can train hard and improve my game.

“Injuries are part and parcel of a player’s life but it hampers one’s game as it takes a lot of time in rehab and then to reach the peak of your game to make a comeback.“I will go home now and my next tournaments will be in May. I will play more Grand Prix and Grand Prix Golds and also look to play the qualifying rounds of the Super Series tournaments.

“The focus will be to perform, the ranking will then take care of itself,” he said.