Taipei: Former champion Sourabh Verma suffered a straight-game loss to World No. 2 Chou Tien Chen in the men’s singles second round to draw curtains on India’s campaign at the USD 500,000 Chinese Taipei Open badminton tournament here Thursday. The 26-year-old Sourabh verma, who won the Hyderabad Open last month, was no match for the top-seeded Chen, going down 12-21 10-21 in a match that lasted 30 minutes.
World No. 38 Sourabh, the 2016 winner of this tournament, had come into the match with a 2-0 head-to-head record against Chen but that did not matter as the Taipei shuttler stamped his authority to knock the Indian out of the tournament.
Chen jumped to a 5-0 lead early on and held to a healthy 11-5 lead at the break. Sourabh Verma tried to make a comeback but he just could not find a way to extend the rallies with the Taipei shuttler pocketing the opening game comfortably.
In the second game, Sourabh took a 3-1 lead early on but the script changed quickly as Chen once again dominated the proceedings, marching ahead with quick burst of points. At the break, Chen led 11-4 and the gap kept increasing as Sourabh crumbled.
Sourabh will next play at Vietnam Open Super 100 next week, before competing in Korea Open (September 24-29).
PTI