Almere (Netherlands): Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Parupalli Kashyap continued their good run to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles competition at the Dutch Open badminton tournament, here.
Top seed Jayaram, who has clinched the Dutch Open thrice in his career, spanked Philip Shisov of Bulgaria 21-7, 21-9 in his second round match, while 11th seed Kashyap beat Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 21-11, 7-21, 21-10 in a 50-minute contest late Wednesday night.
Jayaram had an easy encounter, but Kashyap who is back on the circuit after a three-month lay-off had to fight really hard for victory. After winning the first game easily, Kashyap suddenly lost his concentration in the second and that allowed the Danish player to restore parity. However, the Indian recovered his rhythm to establish his dominance in the third game and win it easily.
“It was a close shave,” Kashyap admitted after his match. “Because I have been away from competitive tournaments for long, I am failing to maintain consistency. Hopefully as I play more matches, I will be able to play more fluently,” he added.
Jayaram will next play Norway’s Marius Myhre, while Kashyap faces sixth seed Raul Must of Estonia, who had reached the finals in the last edition.
However, it was curtains for Lakhanee Sarang as he suffered a 17-21, 17-21 loss against Raul in the second round.
Among other Indians in fray, the mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Meghana Jakkampudi beat German duo of Daniel Benz and Theresa Wurm 21-11, 21-17 to set up a clash against the Dutch combination of Jelle Maas and Imke Van der Aar in the next round.
Fourth seeds Pranaav Cherry Chopra and Sikki Reddy, who clinched two titles this year at Brazil and Russia, defeated the local pair of Ties Van Der Lecq and Alyssa Tirtosentono 21-5, 21-16 and they will face France’s Jordan Corvee and Anne Tran next.
Easy victory
Shuttler Sourabh Varma advanced to the quarterfinals of the USD 55,000 Chinese Taipei Grand Prix at Taipei, Thursday after defeating Japan’s Ryotaro Maruo 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 in a 31-minute clash to set up a clash with Japan’s Kento Horiuchi next. As the tournament belongs to the Challenger series, the matches are best of five games with the first to reach 11 points winning a game.
Sourabh dominated all the three games and in each he had a handsome lead from the start. In the first game he opened up a 4-0 lead, in the second he led 4-0 and in the third 5-0. It proved too much for his Japanese opponent.
Press Trust of India