Ajay Jayaram storms into semis keeping Indian challenge alive at US Open

El Monte (California): Fourth seed Ajay Jayaram stormed into the semi-finals of the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament to remain India’s lone hope as all the other shuttlers crashed out of the $120,000 event. In the men’s singles, Anand Pawar lost to Jayaram while the men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy went down fighting. The women’s doubles duo of Meghana Jakkampudi and S Poorvisha Ram also bowed out after losing in straight games in their quarter-final tie on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_2883376” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajay Jayaram. Image Credit: Twitter @ajay_289[/caption] Pitched against fellow countryman Pawar, World No 22 Jayaram took just 30 minutes to edge past No 93 Pawar 21-11, 21-11 in their quarter-final match. Jayaram continued his domination throughout the match giving no chance to the 30-year-old, to set up a clash against Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama in the semi-finals on Saturday. Meanwhile, it was curtains for both the doubles pairs to crash out in contrasting fashion. Rio-bound men’s doubles combo of Attri and Reddy gave a tough fight to Japanese duo of Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko before going down 21-18, 7-21, 16-21. After pocketing the first game with ease, the Indian pair lost stem in the second but tried hard to bounce back in the third before losing the momentum once again. The women’s duo of Meghana and Poorvisha was also eliminated after losing 15-21, 12-21 to local pair of Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana.