India's top junior shuttler Sameer Verma entered the final of the Asia Youth Under-19 badminton championships after a hard-fought, three-game victory over Liu Kai of China in Lucknow on Friday.

The 16-year-old Sameer recovered from a mid-game slump to beat Kai 21-19, 15-21, 21-9 in the boys' singles semi-finals, at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy.

However, another 16-year-old, P V Sindhu, squandered a first game lead and went down to Sun Yu of China 21-13, 12-21, 10-21 in the girls' singles in 48 minutes.