Verma brothers reach quarter-finals of Bitburger Open

The Verma brothers, Sourabh and Sameer, notched up straight-game wins to advance to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles competition at the USD 120,000 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here.

Sourabh staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, seeded sixth, in the second game to register a 21-11 22-20 victory, while 12th seed Sameer dumped Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees 21-17 21-17 in another men’s singles match.

Sourabh, who had won the Chinese Taipei Open recently, will next take on experienced World No. 13 Marc Zwibler of Germany, while younger brother Sameer will face Ukraine’s Artem Pochtarov in the next round.

In mixed doubles, Prajakta Sawant and her Malaysian partner Yogendran Khrishnan lost 15-21 11-21 to fourth-seeded Malaysian combo of Kian Meng Tan and Pei Jing Lai. In the first game, Sourabh didn’t face much resistance as he slowly and steadily marched towards his goal. But the second game became a hard-fought affair when the Indonesian turned the tables on the Indian, who was leading 13-9 at one stage. Ihsan fought back from 12-16 down to lead 17-16 but Sourabh ensured he had the last laugh in the 42-minute clash.