Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram staved off a spirited challenge from Japan’s Hashiru Shimono to enter the second round of the Chinese Taipei BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament in Taipei City on Wednesday.
Jayaram, who had reached the finals at Vietnam Open and White Nights, defeated Hashiru 18-21 21-17 21-9 within an hour to set up a second-round clash with Denmark’s Kim Bruun next.
Joining him in the men’s singles second round will be Sourabh Verma after he defeated Chia Hao Lee from Chinese Taipei. The Indian needed 52 minutes and had to fight back from a game down, much like Jayaram, to win 18-21, 21-16, 21-13.
Verma will face Japan’s Riichi Takeshita in the next round.
However, young Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli couldn’t cross the opening hurdle, despite giving her everything as she went down 21-23 20-22 to Lin Ying Chun of Chinese Taipei.
Among other Indian shuttlers, Abhishek Yeligar, Rahul Yadav, Mugdha Agrey, and Sai Uttejitha Rao all lost in the opening round.
While Abhishek was shown the door by fifth seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 5-21 6-21 in men’s singles, seventh seed Soniia Cheah of Malaysia ended Mugdha’s campaign with a 21-11 21-4 win. Taipei shuttlers handed defeats to Rahul and Sai Uttejitha as Chi Ting Chen won 21-15, 21-18 against the former while Chia Hung Li won 21-11, 21-9 against the latter.
India’s Tarun Kona and his Malaysian partner Lim Khim Wah also suffered the same fate, losing 13-21 10-21 to fourth seeded Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.