Sourabh keeps hopes alive, enters Chinese Taipei GP quarter-finals

Sourabh Varma advanced to the quarter-finals of the $55,000 Chinese Taipei Grand Prix after defeating Japan’s Ryotaro Maruo in the men’s singles competition here on Thursday.

Sourabh, who reached the finals of the Belgian and Polish Open, beat Maruo 11-6, 11-8 ,11-6 in 31 minutes to set up a clash with Japan’s Kento Horiuchi next.

Sourabh opened up a 4-0 lead in the opening game but Maruo came back to draw level before the Indian slowly started to distance himself, reaching 8-6. He then sealed the opening game with three straight points.

In the second game, Sourabh raced to a 7-0 at one stage and though the Japanese did put up a fight, the Indian soon pocketed it without much ado.

In the decider, it was a much closer battle as both the shuttlers fought neck-and-neck till 4-4. Sourabh opened up a 7-4 lead but Maruo closed it down to 6-7 before the Indian reeled off four points to shut the door.

Jayaram, Kashyap enter pre-quarters of Dutch Open

In Almere, the Netherlands, defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Parupalli Kashyap continued their good run to reach the pre-quarter-finals of the men’s singles at Dutch Open badminton tournament.

Top seed Jayaram, who has clinched the Dutch Open thrice in his career, spanked Philip Shisov of Bulgaria 21-7, 21-9 in his second round match, while 11th seed Kashyap beat Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 21-11, 7-21, 21-10 in a 50-minute contest late on Wednesday.

Jayaram next plays Norway’s Marius Myhre, while Kashyap faces sixth seed Raul Must of Estonia, who reached the finals in the last edition.