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Patna : World No 72 Ajay Jayaram, 32, India, handed over a shock defeat to World No 26 Sameer Verma,25, India, to enter the second round of Ecogreen Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament, at Lucknow, UP, India, on November 27, 2019.
Ajay upset 5th seed Sameer in a three-game thriller 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in 62 minutes in first round at Babu Banararasi Das Indoor Stadium, Lucknow, rallying back after losing the first game. Ajay won 57 rallies in the match to 52 by Sameer, who is going through a lean patch. Both the players won 6 consecutive points each in the match. Ajay leads Sameer 2-1 Head to Head.
World No 38 Sourabh Verma, 26, India, the elder brother of Sameer Verma, 26, India, beat World No 84 Xiaodong Sheng, Canada, 21-11, 21-16 in 41 minutes to enter the 2nd round. World No 11 B Sai Praneeth, 27, India, beat World No 74 Iskandar Zulkarnain, Malaysia, 21-16, 22-20 in 47 minutes to enter the 2nd round.