Almere (Netherlands): Defending champion Ajay Jayaram reached the quarterfinals of the Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton tournament after notching up an easy straight games win over Norway’s Marius Myhre in a men’s singles match, played late night here Thursday. But most of the other Indians made their exits going down to their respective opponents.
Top seed Jayaram defeated 16th seed Marius 21-6, 21-6, in a lop-sided contest. He will next face Brazil’s Ygor Coelho De Oliveira. However, 11th seed Parupalli kashyap lost 18-21 18-21 to sixth seed Raul Must of Estonia.
The mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Meghana Jakkampudi, however, reached the next round after defeating Netherlands’ Jelle Maas and Imke Van Der Aar 21-16, 21-18.
However, in men’s doubles, top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost to Jacco Arends and Ruben Jille of the Netherlands 19-21, 19-21. Another Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar, seeded third, also lost to Germany’s Bjarne Geiss and Fabian Holzer 17-21, 21-15, 20-22.
Meanwhile in Taipei City, shuttler Sourabh Varma entered the semifinals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix following a hard-fought 7-11, 11-1, 11-3, 11-7 win Friday over Japan’s Kento Horiuchi. He will next meet local boy Hsu Jen Hao for a place in the final. The Indian has a 3-0 record against Hao.
After losing the first game unexpectedly, Sourabh found his rhythm and never gave the Japanese any chance in the next two games winning both comfortably.
In the fourth game, Kento managed to eke out a 4-0 lead but Sourabh soon reeled off six points to turn the tables. The Indian then sealed the issue without much fuss.
Press Trust of India
