The Verma brothers - Sourabh and Sameer - and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles and women’s singles competition respectively at the USD 120,000 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here.
Sourabh sailed into the third round after his Chinese opponent Xue Song, seeded 14th, retired when he was trailing 9-16 in the opening game. The Chinese Taipei Open winner will next take on sixth seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia. Younger brother Sameer, seeded 12th, brushed aside Finland’s Eetu Heino 21-10, 21-16 in 30 minutes to set up a clash with Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees.
In women’s singles, Ruthvika spanked Netherlands’ Soraya De Visch Eijbergen 21-11, 21-13 in a lopsided match. She will take on top seed He Bingjiao of China, who had defeated Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu at the French Open last week.
India’s Prajakta Sawant and her partner Zhi Qing Lee of Malaysia also registered a hard-fought win over Denmark pair of Julie Finne-Ipsen and Rikke Soby Hansen 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 in a 49-minute women’s doubles match. They will next face top seed Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China.
Tanvi Lad bows out
Promising shuttler Tanvi Lad bowed out in the opening round after losing to Gayle Mahulette of Netherlands 14-21, 17-21 in a 31-minute women’s singles clash.
It was also curtains for Akshay Dewalkar and Tarun Kona, who went down fighting 13-21, 22-20, 21-23 against eighth seeds Michael Fuchs and Johannes Schoettler of Germany. In another men’s doubles match, Malaysia’s Yogendran Khrishnan and Kamaldeep Singh lost 6-21, 11-21 to English pair of Matthew Nottingham and Harley Towler.
Prajakta and Yogendran will open their mixed doubles campaign against Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Maiken Fruergaard of Denmark.
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