Jayaram leads inspired Indians into Dutch Open badminton second round
Indian world number 25 Ajay Jayaram moved into the men’s singles second round of the Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton along with upcoming stars Sai Praneeth and Gurusaidutt
Earlier Anand Pawar, seeded 14, went down tamely to Malaysian Iskandar Zainuddin 10-21, 15-21 in 34 minutes.
Third-seeded Jayaram won the match in 64 minutes after recovering from a first game loss to the Dutchman. The Mumbai shuttler held the lead throughout the second game and turned up the heat on his lower-ranked opponent towards the end to close out the game.
Jayaram, who made his first Super Series final in South Korea recently, ran up a 4-1 lead in the decider but the Dutchman levelled at 4 before the Indian took a four-point lead at 10-6. The duo traded points, but the Indian was in control at 19-15. However, Caljouw rode a three-point streak to edge close at 18-19 before Jayaram closed it out. Jayaram will meet German Fabian Roth in the second round for a place in the pre-quarterfinals.
Praneeth eased past Denmark’s Steffen Rasmussen 21-15, 21-11 in 33 minutes, while Gurusaidutt scored a comprehensive 21-8, 21-9 victory over Belgian Maxime Moreels in 27 minutes, after riding a seven-point streak in both the games.
In the second round, Gurusaidutt will meet qualifier Chen Chun-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Praneeth will take on Rasmus Fladberg of Denmark.
Meanwhile, Tarun Kona and N Sikki Reddy lost to the second-seeded Dutch pair of Jacco Arends and Selena Piek 16-21, 15-21 in the mixed doubles first round.