Verma brothers advance to Bitburger Open second round

The Verma brothers, Sourabh and Sameer, advanced to the second round of the men’s singles of the $120,000 Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton at Saarbrucken, Germany.

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

Sourabh, who reached the finals of international challenge events in Belgium and Poland, next faces formidable Chinese Xue Song, seeded 14th.

The 12th seeded 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.

Siril lost 17-21, 16-21 to sixth seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia, while Subhankar went down 19-21, 18-21 to fifth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in another opening round match.

In the qualifying round, the 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.

In mixed doubles, Kamaldeep Singh and Malaysia’s Zhi Qing Lee lost 10-21, 21-16, 14-21 to Germany’s Bjarne Geiss and Eva Janssens.