Dutch Open: Ajay Jayaram and Parupalli Kashyap advance to prequarterfinals, Lakhanee Sarang crashes out

Almere: Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Parupalli Kashyap continued their good run to reach the prequarterfinals of the men’s singles competition at Dutch Open badminton tournament. [caption id=“attachment_3048982” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Parupalli Kashyap. AFP[/caption] Top seed Jayaram, who has clinched the Dutch Open thrice in his career, spanked Philip Shisov of Bulgaria 21-7 21-9 in his second round match, while 11th seed Kashyap beat Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 21-11 7-21 21-10 in a 50-minute contest late Wednesday night. Jayaram will next play Norway’s Marius Myhre, while Kashyap face sixth seed Raul Must of Estonia, who had reached the finals in the last edition. However, it was curtains for Lakhanee Sarang as he suffered a 17-21 17-21 loss against Raul in the second round. Among other Indians in fray, mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Meghana Jakkampudi beat German duo of Daniel Benz and Theresa Wurm 21-11 21-17 to set up a clash against Dutch combination of Jelle Maas and Imke Van der Aar in the next round. Fourth seeds Pranaav Cherry Chopra and Sikki Reddy, who clinched two titles this year at Brazil and Russia, defeated local pair of Ties Van Der Lecq and Alyssa Tirtosentono 21-5 21-16 and they will face France’s Jordan Corvee and Anne Tran next. In men’s doubles, top seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will open their campaign against Jacco Arends and Ruben Jille, while Pranaav and Akshay Dewalkar face German duo of Bjarne Geiss and Fabian Holzer.