Auckland, April 15 (IANS) Indian shuttlers Sourabh Varma and Arvind Bhat Tuesday entered the men’s singles second round in emphatic fashion at the $50,000 New Zealand Open Grand Prix being played at the North Shore Events Centre here.
Second seed Varma took exactly half an hour to ease past local shuttler James Eunson 21-16, 21-14 in their first ever match. Varma, who hails from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, will face another New Zealander Dylan Henton in the next round.
Meanwhile, recently crowned German Open Grand Prix Gold champion Bhat took 33 minutes to edge past Malaysia’s Zhen Ting Lim 21-9, 14-21, 21-7 in their first ever encounter.
The Bangalorean will next face Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jui Ting against whom the Indian has a 1-0 lead in career meetings.
