Taipei City: Ajay Jayaram kept India’s chances alive as he progressed to the quarterfinals of the Chinese Taipei BWF World Tour Super 300 badminton tournament ousting Denmark’s Kim Bruun in straight games in the second round here Thursday. Jayaram won 21-10, 22-20 in a 37-minute battle.
Jayaram, former World No.13, dished out a clinical effort as he led 6-0 at one point. However, Kim reduced the deficit to 8-9 before the Indian once again stamped his authority to jump to 14-8 and then 20-9 to secure the opening game.
The second game, however, turned out to be a close affair as Kim erased a 3-6 deficit and turned the tables, reaching 11-9 at the break.
The Danish shuttler continued to move ahead and grabbed a healthy 16-12 advantage at one stage. But the experienced Jayaram managed to draw parity at 19-19 and sealed the contest eventually. The 30-year-old will face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia next.
However, former national champion Sourabh Verma, who had won the USD 75,000 Russian Open in July and was a part of the Indian team at 18th Asian Games after recovering from injury, lost to Japan’s Riichi Takeshita 21-19, 21-23, 16-21 to bow out of the tournament.
