Sourabh enters quarterfinals of Belgian Open

India's Sourabh Varma defeated France’s Lucas Claerbout to reach the quarterfinals of the Belgian International Challenge.

Sourabh Varma will next take on Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees.

Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma reached the quarterfinals of the Belgian International Challenge after ekeing out a hard-fought win over France’s Lucas Claerbout in the men’s singles competition here. In more than an hour’s contest, Sourabh defeated the sixth seeded French Claerbout 21-19, 16-21, 21-15 in the pre-quarterfinal contest.

He will next take on Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees, who defeated Germany’s Kai Schaefer 21-15, 21-16 in another match. However, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina and Rituparna Das could not make it to the last eight after suffering contrasting losses in the second round last night.

While Rahul squandered an opening game advantage to go down fighting 21-19, 15-21, 15-21 to Sam Parsons of England in a little over an hour, Rituparna lost 20-22, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Soniia Su Ya Cheah in women’s singles.

In men’s doubles, it will be an all Indian clash in the quarterfinals as Vighnesh Devlekar and Rohan Kapoor take on Arjun M. R. and Ramchandran Shlok.