Jayaram, who was once ranked as high as 13th in the world, has seen a considerable fall in his ranking below 100 after a string of injuries following the world championships last year. The 30-year-old has only recently started playing regularly again and would be pleased with his progress at the US Open. Caljouw, who was ranked 30th in the world, won seven points in a row early in the first game of the semi-final to put it beyond Jayaram’s reach. The Dutch shuttler had a 9-4 lead in the second game too before Ajay clawed his way back and managed to tie the score at 21-21. However, Caljouw finally managed to get better of Jayaram and won two points in a row to seal the match.

In the women’s singles, top seed Beiwen Zhang of USA fought back from a game and six match points down against Japan’s Aya Ohori to book a spot in the final. The Japanese had won the first game 22-20 and was just one point away from victory at 20-14 in the second, before Zhang won seven points in a row and took the second game 23-21. Zhang closed out the decider 21-13 to set up a final against former Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China.