Sourabh Varma stormed into his third successive summit clash with a straight-games victory over local favourite and top seed Hsu Jen Hao in the men’s singles semi-finals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Pr
Sourabh Varma stormed into his third successive summit clash with a straight-games victory over local favourite and top seed Hsu Jen Hao in the men’s singles semi-finals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix badminton tournament on Saturday.
Sourabh, who had reached the finals at challengers in Belgium and Poland, defeated Hao 11-4, 11-7, 11-9 in a 33-minute clash. Sourabh is on the comeback trail from 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 buit it up to 8-3 and then pocketed the first game with three straight points.
In the second game, Hao made the early movement but Sourabh soon turned the tables with a four-point burst and then reached 7-3 in a jiffy. The Indian kept his foot on the pedal to grab the second game as well to go 2-0 up.
The third game was the most hard-fought as once again Hao surged 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.
Jayaram makes Dutch Open semis In Almere, the Netherlands, defending champion Ajay Jayaram continued his dominating run at the Dutch Open, reaching the semi-finals of the men’s singles competition of the $55,000 Grand Prix tournament.
Top seed Jayaram, who has clinched this title three times in his career, notched up a 21-15, 21-18 win over Brazil’s Ygor Coelho de Oliveira, seeded eighth, in a 32-minute match at the Topsportcentrum Almere here.
The 29-year-old Indian will next face fifth seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
Pranaav Cherry Chopra and Sikki Reddy also reached the mixed doubles semi-finals on Friday night.
