Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Commonwealth bronze-medallist RMV Gurusaidutt reached the men’s singles quarterfinals of the $50,000 Dutch Open Grand Prix here. Following his maiden runners-up finish at the Korea Super Series, World No. 25 Jayaram continued his good run to get past Finland’s Kasper Lehikoinen 21-14, 21-13 in a lop-sided 31-minute contest.
The Bangalore-born shuttler will next face Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia. The Indian has a 2-1 record against the Malaysian. Jayaram had beaten Iskandar at the 2009 Malaysia GPG and 2010 Smiling Fish International Series but lost to him when he retired midway at Syed Modi GPG this year. Gurusaidutt, seeded ninth, too saw off Ukraine’s Dmytro Zavadsky 21-12, 21-11 to set up a match with 12th seed Raul Must of Estonia.
The two last played each other five years ago. Guru had beaten Raul at the 2009 Denmark Open Super Series, while the Estonia shuttler had defeated the Indian at the 2010 German Open. India’s top men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also staved off a challenge from Netherlands’ Mark Caljouw and Jelle Maas 21-13, 19-21, 21-18 in a gruelling battle and the second seeds next take on the German combo of Max Schwenger and Josche Zurwonne. Meanwhile, it was curtains for P.C. Thulasi as she went down fighting 19-21, 23-21, 19-21 to Ireland’s Chloe Magee in a women’s singles match that lasted for an hour and 19 minutes.
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