Badminton: Sourabh Varma loses in the final of Belgian International

Leuven: Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma fell at the final hurdle as he lost to Lucas Corvee of France in straight sets in the summit clash of the Belgian International badminton tournament at Leuven. Unseeded Sourabh lost 19-21 19-21 in a 43-minute contest against his fifth seeded rival from France on Saturday night. Sourabh blew away a strong start and an 11-4 lead to lose the first set. Corvee played a catch-up game and the Indian allowed him to level the scores at 17-17 and then 19-19 before the Frenchman took the first set 21-19. The second set was a neck-and-contest and the scores were tied at 9-9. But from there, Corvee did not look back and he led the Indian till the end to grab the match and the trophy. Earlier, Sourabh had beaten qualifier Fabian Roth of Germany in the semifinals. In the men’s doubles, the Indian duo of M R Arjun and Ramchandran Shlok had lost in the semifinals.