Kuala Lumpur, Apr 2 (PTI) India's Sameer Verma put up a daunting effort before going down in three games in a pulsating opening round clash against World no 2 Chinese Shi Yuqi in the USD 750,000 Malaysia Open here Tuesday.

The 24-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, who had lost to Shi Yuqi in the semifinals of the World Tour Finals in December last year, suffered a heart-breaking 20-22 23-21 12-21 loss in a 65-minute men's singles here.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, however, made a good start to their campaign, eking out a 22-20 24-22 win over Ireland's Sam Magee and Chloe Magee in mixed doubles.

The men's singles match was a close battle till 8-8, Sameer fall back to 11-16 but he fought back to make it 20-20 before being edged out by Shi Yuqi in the opening game.

The second game was no different as the Indian was lagging 11-16 again but this time he not only clawed back at 20-20. And even though the Chinese had grabbed one match point, Sameer reeled off three points to take the match to the decider.

In the third game, Shi Yuqi jumped to a 9-0 lead and didn't allow the Indian to fight back.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)