Jayaram and Gurusaidutt enter Dutch Open badminton quarterfinals
Ajay Jayaram and RMV Gurusaidutt advanced into the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Dutch Open Grand Prix badminton in Almere with comprehensive straight games victories. A spirited PC Thulasi, however, fell short in a closely-fought second round contest in women’s singles.
Third seed Jayaram put it across Finland’s Kasper Lehikoinen 21-14, 21-13 in 31 minutes, and ninth-seeded Gurusaidutt eased past Ukrainian Dmytro Zavadsky 21-12, 21-11 in 33 minutes.
Meanwhile, Thulasi bounced back from a first game defeat to win the second game and, in fact, led at the business end of the decider, before letting the match slip to Chloe Magee. The Irish woman won 21-19, 21-23, 21-19 after Thulasi had led 19-17 in the third game, but allowed her opponent to close it out by winning four straight points.
The World number 26, Jayaram, had qualified for his first Super Series final at the Korea Open, which saw him regain a spot among the world’s top-25. The Mumbai shuttler will next meet Malaysia’s Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, who beat Anand Pawar in the first round.
Gurusaidutt will take on the winner of the match between Denmark’s Rasmus Fladberg and Estonian Raul Must. Earlier, eighth seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down to the Scottish pair of Martin Campbell and Patrick Machugh 14-21, 18-21 in the men’s doubles first round.
Later on Thursday, second-seeded pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on Mark Caljouw and Jelle Maas of the Netherlandsfor for a place in the men’s doubles quarterfinals.
