Verma brothers advance in Bitburger Open GP

The Verma brothers — Sourabh and Sameer — advanced to the second round of the men’s singles competition of the USD 120,000 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton here.

Sourabh, who clinched the Chinese Taipei title early this month, defeated Austria’s Rudiger Gnedt 21-16, 21-11 in just 20 minutes, while his younger brother Sameer who became the senior National champion this year, beat Germany’s Alexander Roovers 21-11, 21-11 in another match.

Sourabh, who had reached the finals at International Challenge events at Belgium and Poland, will next face formidable Chinese Xue Song, seeded 14th. The 12th seed Sameer will be up against Eetu Heino of Finland in the second round.

However, it was curtains for upcoming shuttlers Siril Verma and Subhankar Dey.

In the qualifying round, men’s doubles pair of Yogendran Khrisnan of Malaysia and Kamaldeep Singh defeated Austria’s Wolfgang Gnedt and Malaysia’s Woon Kok Hong 21-12, 16-21, 21-19. They will take on England’s Matthew Nottingham and Harley Towler.

In women’s singles, Tanvi Lad will start her campaign against Gayle Mahulette of Netherlands and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will face the Netherlands’s Soraya De Visch Eijbergen.

In the opening round of men’s doubles, India’s Akshay Dewalkar and Kona Tarun will take on German eighth seed Michael Fuchs and Johannes Schoettler.

In mixed doubles, Prajakta Sawant and Malaysia’s Zhi Qing Lee will face Denmark’s Julie Finne-Ipsen and Rikke Soby Hansen.