India’s Ajay Jayaram progressed to the quarter-finals of the Chinese Taipei BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament after ousting Denmark’s Kim Bruun in straight games in the second round on Thursday, PTI reported.
Jayaram registered a 21-10, 22-20 win over Kim in a 37-minute battle. The 30-year-old will face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia next.
Former national champion Sourabh Verma, who had won the $75,000 Russian Open in July and had qualified for the Indian team at 18th Asian Games after recovering from injury, lost to Japan’s Riichi Takeshita 21-19, 21-23, 16-21 to bow out of the tournament.
Jayaram got off to a blistering start as he led 6-0. However, Kim reduced the deficit to 8-9 before the Indian once again stamped his authority to jump to 14-8, and then 20-9, before securing the opening game.
The second game, however, turned out to be a close affair as Kim erased a 3-6 deficit and turned the tables, reaching 11-9 at the break. The Danish shuttler continued to move ahead and grabbed a healthy 16-12 advantage at one stage. But the experienced Jayaram managed to draw parity at 19-19, before holding his nerve to seal the contest.
