Saarbrucken (Germany): The Verma brothers — Sourabh and Sameer — notched up straight-game wins to advance to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles competition at the Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here.

Sourabh staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, seeded sixth, in the second game to register a 21-11, 22-20 victory, while 12th seed Sameer dumped Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees 21-17, 21-17 in another men’s singles match.