India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa entered the mixed doubles semifinal with a stunning win, but Sameer Verma's impressive run at the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 tournament came to an end after a gruelling battle here on Friday.
The unseeded pair of Satwik and Ashwini stunned fifth seeds and world no 6 Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia 18-21 24-22 22-20 after toiling hard for one hour and 15 minutes in a nail-biting quarterfinal duel.
The world no. 22 Indian pair next will be up against top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
However, Sameer's giant-killing run came to an end after he squandered a match point to go down 13-21 21-19 20-22 to world no 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a men's singles quarterfinal contest.
In the opening game, Antonsen was up 5-0 with Sameer looking tentative and struggling with his length, hitting long and wide. The Danish shuttler continued his good run, managing to keep a six-point advantage at the break.
Sameer couldn't engage his rival in long rallies or put any kind of pressure and also struggled with his shots as Antonsen cantered to eight-game points and took the opening game when the Indian went wide again.
After the change of sides, Antonsen opened up a 5-1 lead but Sameer managed to claw back with four straight points. A brilliant cross-court net shot helped the Indian to keep it 7-7 before he took the lead as his opponent erred.
However, at the interval, it was Antonsen who held a slender one-point lead. Sameer kept breathing down his neck and grabbed a game point with an onrushing return. He roared back into the contest when Antenson faltered at the nets.
The decider started on a competitive note as the duo were 5-5 at one stage before Sameer moved to 9-6 with a few tricky shots and then held a three-point advantage at the interval.
Antonsen regained his focus and drew parity at 13-13 after Sameer erred twice at the net. It was a game of nerves after that as both the shuttlers moved neck-and-neck till 18-18. Sameer then pushed one to the net and won a video referral next to move to 19-19.
Sameer grabbed a match point next with a deep return but found the net next as it was 20-all. Antonsen grabbed a match point with a percise return at the fore court and sealed the match with a similar shot which the Indian failed to reach.