Defending champ Sourabh bows out

Taipei: Defending champion Sourabh Verma suffered a narrow straight game loss to Malaysia’s Lee ii Jia to crash out in the opening round of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Wednesday. Fourth seed Sourabh lost 19-21, 20-22 to Lee in the men’s singles but Siril Verma, Harsheel Dani and Abhishek Yele gar notched up contrasting wins to enter the second round. The 16th seed Siril defeated Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chi Liu 2111, 10-21, 21-19 in a hard-fought match, while 15th seed Abhishek saw off Malaysia’s Yu Ming Adam Lau 20-22, 21-14, 21-10. Later, 14th seed Harsheel sent packing Hong Kong’s Lee Chak Wai 21-12, 21-14 in another men’s singles match.