Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma stormed into his third successive summit clash after notching up a straight-game victory over local favourite and top seed Hsu Jen Hao in the men’s singles semifinals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix badminton tournament here today.
2011 National champion Sourabh, who had reached the finals at two international challenger at Belgium and Poland, defeated Hao 11-4, 11-7, 11-9 in a 33 minute clash. Sourabh, who is on a comeback trail after being on the sidelines with multiple injuries, will next take on the winner of the match between Malaysia’s Daren Liew and fifth seed Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei.
The 23-year-old from Madhya Pradesh opened up a 2-0 lead early on and then slowly crafted his way to a 8-3 lead and then pocketed the first game with three straight points.
In the second game, Hao made the early movement, leading by a slender two points but Sourabh soon turned the tables with a four-point burst and then reached 7-3 in a jiffy. The Indian kept the foot on the pedel to grab the second game as well to go 2-0 up.
The third game was the most hard-fought contest as once again Hao had surged ahead to 5-2 and though the Indian drew parity at 5-5, Hao once again led 8-6. A three-point burst helped Sourabh to grab the lead at 9-8 and though Hao leveled the score, the Indian picked up two points to shut the door on the local hero.
Sourabh won the 2013 Tata Open India International Challenge, Iran Fajr International Challenge and Austrian International in 2014. He won his first international title by winning the Bahrain International Challenge and also finished runners-up at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in 2011.
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