Press Trust of India
Almere (The Netherlands), Oct 5: After reaching his maiden Super Series final at Korea Open, shuttler Ajay Jayaram will now look to continue his good run at the USD 50,000 Dutch Open Grand Prix, which starts with the qualifiers here Tuesday.
A place in the final of Korea Open saw him jump to the World No. 25 spot and Jayaram, seeded third, will look to put the best foot forward when he opens his campaign against Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.
“I would like to maintain the same level of consistency which I had a few weeks back,” stated Jayaram here Monday. “I wouldn’t like to lose the momentum.”
Among other Indians, ninth seed RMV Gurusaidutt will take on Belgium’s Maxime Moreels, while fourth seed B Sai Praneeth will meet Denmark’s Steffen Rasmussen in the opening round of men’s singles. Anand Pawar, seeded 14th, will face Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia in another match.
However, the other top Indians, Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy have given this tournament a miss.
In women’s singles, bronze medallist at Uber Cup and Asian Games last year, PC Thulasi will take on a qualifier in the first round.
Mixed doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Prajakta Sawant will fight it out with Swede combo of Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom, while Kona Tarun and N Sikki Reddy will be up against Netherlands’s Jacco Arends and Selena Piek.