Leuven: Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma reached the quarter-finals of the Belgian International Challenge after a hard-fought win over France’s Lucas Claerbout in the men’s singles competition. In more than an hour’s contest, Varma defeated the sixth seeded French Claerbout 21-19 16-21 21-15 in the pre-quarterfinal contest.

Varma will next take on Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees, who defeated Germany’s Kai Schaefer 21-15 21-16 in another match. However, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina and Rituparna Das could not make it to the last eight.