Day 3 of the Bitburger Badminton Open turned out to be a great day for the Verma family as brothers Sourabh and Sameer both entered the quarter-finals of this Grand Prix Gold event in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Elder brother Sourabh has been in good form of late and came into this tournament in a rich vein of form after winning the Chinese Taipei Masters title last month which was his first triumph at the Grand Prix level.
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He has been able to maintain his good run so far and on Thursday, he gave another example of his confident play as he ousted the sixth seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, 21-11, 22-20 for a place in the last-eight.
The Indonesian made it a tight second game after conceding the first one easily. But Sourabh managed to hold his nerves for the win in 42 minutes. The 23-year-old will next face the third seed, Marc Zwiebler in his quest for a semi-final berth.
Younger brother Sameer was equally impressive against the Scottish shuttler Kieran Merrilees. The 12th seed beat his opponent 21-17, 21-17 in 39 minutes. His next opponent will be the 68th ranked Ukrainian Artem Pochtarov.
Ruthvika Shivani Gadde exits
In women’s singles, 19-year-old Ruthvika Shivani Gadde was not so lucky. The Russian Open champion faced the top seed, China’s He Bingjiao in her second round match. The Chinese won the French Open Superseries last week and carried on that momentum into the Bitburger Open as well. She needed just 29 minutes to dismiss the young Indian, 21-16, 21-13.
Prajakta Sawant was the only Indian remaining in doubles who endured a double whammy on Thursday as she bowed out of both the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles events in the second round.
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In women’s doubles, she and Malaysia’s Zhi Qing Lee suffered a 14-21, 13-21 heartbreak at the hands of the top seeded Chinese pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan.
In mixed doubles, Sawant and Yogendran Krishnan of Malaysia lost 15-21, 11-21 to the fourth seeds Kian Meng Tan and Pei Jing Lai.
