Sourabh Verma loses New Zealand Open quarters

Auckland, Aug 4 :Sourabh Verma's campaign at the New Zealand Open Grand Prix Gold was halted after going down to unseeded Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the men's singles quarter-finals here on Friday.
The seventh seeded Indian, who defeated compatriot Parupalli Kashyap on Thursday, struggled in the first game to trail 1-6 before the World No.88 Lee extended it to 11-6 at the breather.
Coming back, Lee continued his dominance to further stretch his lead to 14-8 before Verma managed to take four points on the trot and reduce it to 12-14.
Both shuttlers went neck and neck till 18-18 before Lee kept his nerves to pocket the game 21-19.
In the second game, Lee went ahead taking a 8-4 lead before stretching it further to 11-6 at the break. Verma was nowhere in the competition as the gap continued to widen with the Hong Kong shuttler stretching it further to 16-11.
By now it became difficult for the World No.37 Indian as Lee slowly took away the game with a 21-16 margin.
In another quarter-final, India's H.S. Prannoy is playing Chinese Taipei's lin Yu Hsien.