Day 2 proved to be good for the top Indian shuttlers in action at the Bitburger Badminton Open in Saarbrucken, Germany as all of Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, Sourabh Verma and Sameer Verma won their respective matches.
Russian Open champion Gadde defeated Soraya De Visch Eijbergen of the Netherlands easily, 21-11, 21-13 to enter the second round of the women’s singles. The match lasted just 27 minutes.
The 19-year-old has a tough task up next as she faces the top seed He Bingjiao, who is in great form. The Chinese had come to this tournament right after winning the French Open Superseries last week and the Indian will have to be at her absolute best to have any chance against her.
In the men’s singles, 12th seed Sameer Verma was impressive and needed 30 minutes to dismiss Finnish shuttler Eetu Heino, 21-10, 21-16. He next faces Scottish player Kieran Merrilees for a place in the quarter-finals.
Sameer’s elder brother, Sourabh met the 14th seeded Xue Song in his second round match on Wednesday but the Chinese retired with the Indian leading 16-9 in the first game. The Chinese Taipei Masters champion will next take on the sixth seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa in his quest for a quarter-final berth. The Indonesian had earlier beaten rising Indian talent Siril Verma in straight games in the first round.
However, curtains came down on the campaign of Tanvi Lad in the women’s singles, who lost 14-21, 17-21 to Gayle Mahulette of the Netherlands.
In doubles, Prajakta Sawant was the only Indian who emerged victorious. Sawant, who has paired up with Malaysia’s Zhi Qing Lee in women’s doubles, eked out a narrow 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 win over the Danish duo of Julie Finne-Ipsen and Rikke Soby Hansen to enter the second round.
The Indian men’s doubles team of Akshay Dewalkar and Tarun Kona did not have the same fate and they crashed out 13-21, 22-20, 21-23 to the eighth-seeded Germans Michael Fuchs and Johannes Schoettler.
