India Open: Chetan advances to quarters, Jayaram falls short

CHENNAI - Eighth seeded Ajay Jayaram of India squandered an early lead and paid the price for wrong tactics as he went down to Malaysia’s Chun Seang Tan who entered the quarter-finals in the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Grand Prix badminton, here Thursday.

Jayaram, after managing to win the first game, literally played into the hands of the Malaysian who drew the Indian into a series of fast exchanges to go into the lead and apply pressure that eventually told on his opponent.

If in the first game Jayaram rightly opted to engage Chun in long rallies, he blundered in the next two with the Malaysian coming into his own with some delightful net-play that caught out the Indian to clinch the close match 16-21, 21-16, 21-18 in 68 minutes.

Chun will next play top seed Chetan Anand who took 53 minutes to tame Saurabh Verma 13-21, 21-17, 21-15 in a most unconvincing manner.

Dropping the first game, Anand just about scraped through in the second and then won a very long and match-turning rally at 14-13 in the decider that winded Verma.

Meanwhile, last night’s giant-killer P.C. Thulasi’s dream run came to a screeching stop as Renuga Veeran, a Malaysian-born Australian citizen had the measure of the Indian teenager 21-16, 21-18.

The 24-year old Veeran, currently No.1 in her adopted country, brought into play her doubles skills pushing Thulasi deep into the backcourt and following it up with drops for a well-crafted victory.

“I thought she played well yesterday (to beat fourth seeded Maja Tvrdy), but today, I used my doubles experience as I haven’t played singles in a long time,” said the 24-year old Veeran who, along with her elder brother Raj, is here at her own expense.

“We are targeting the World Championship and the Commonwealth Games this year and so decided to get a feel of India,” explained the 25-year old Raj Veeran. “We couldn’t get any sponsorship or funding and so had to spend our own money to get here.”

The results (all pre-quarterfinals, prefix denotes seeding):

Men’s singles: Yunus Alamsyah (INA) bt MR Manikandan (IND) 21-12, 21-12; Kashyap Parupalli (IND) bt Srujan Nandaluri (IND) 21-15, 21-9; 6-Anand Pawar (IND) bt Aditya Elango (IND) 21-11, 21-10; 7-RMV Guru Sai Dutt (IND) bt Pratik Patel (IND) 21-5, 21-3; 4-Arvind Bhat (IND) bt Abhimanyu Singh (IND) 21-17, 21-15; Chun Seang Tan (MAS) bt 8-Ajay Jayaram (IND) 16-21, 21-16, 21-18; 1-Chetan Anand (IND) bt Saurabh Verma (IND) 13-21, 21-17, 21-15; 2-Muhammed Hafiz Hashim (MAS) bt Tanishak Karuppannan (IND) 21-5, 21-9.

Women’s singles: Linda Weni Fanetri (INA) bt Simone Prutsch (AUT) 17-21, 23-21, 21-11; 6-Sayali Gokhale (IND) bt Gayatri Vartak (IND) 21-15, 21-12; 8-Jiayuan Chen (SIN) bt Chandrika de Silva (SL) 21-14, 21-12; Renuga Veeran (AUS) bt Thulasi PC 21-16, 21-18; Gu Juan (SIN) bt Mohita Sehdev (IND) 21-9, 21-8; 2-Mew Choo Wong (MAS) bt Sanyogita Ghorpade (IND) 21-14, 21-10; Aprilia Yuswandari (INA) bt PV Sindhu (IND) 21-16, 21-17; 1-Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Dhanya Nair (IND) 21-9, 21-9.

Men’s doubles: Mohd Fairuzizuan/Mohd Zakry (MAS) bt KS Hersen/James Jayan (IND) 21-9, 21-12; Berry Angriawan/Muhammad Ulinnuha (INA) bt Manish Gupta/Venkat Gaurav (IND) 14-21, 21-4, 21-9; Pranav Chopra/Tarun Kona (IND) bt Ashish Sharma/Pankaj Nathani (IND) 21-5, 21-8; Mohammad Rizki/Muhammad Rijal (INA) bt Jishnu Sanyal/Manu Attri (IND) 21-17, 21-15; 2-Rupesh Kumar/Sonave Thomas (IND) bt Ravinder Singh Utsav Mishra (IND) 21-8, 21-12; SDS Krishna/Vineeth Manual (IND) bt Jagadish Yadav Kenchappa/Sanjeeth Shanmughasund (IND) 21-17, 21-14; Afias Yuri Wirawan/Rendy Sugiarto bt Ong Soon Hok/Hoon Thien How (MAS) 16-21, 21-19, 21-14; 4-Chayut Triyachart/Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN) bt Akshaye Dewalkar/Arun Vishnu (IND) 21-14, 21-16.

Women’s doubles: Della Destiara Harris/Suci Rizki Andini (INA) bt Thulasi PC/Prajakta Sawant (IND) 21-12, 21-10; 4-Keshya Nurvita Hanadia/Komala Dewi (INA) bt Gu Juan/Jiayuan Chen (SIN) 21-12, 21-17; 2-Ashwini Ponnappa/Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Akansha Raina/Diksha Mahajan (IND) 21-4, 21-4; 1-Lei Yao/Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN) bt Megha Ninan Merin/Vaishali Baria (IND) 21-9, 21-10; Jenna Gozali/Variella Aprilsasi Putri (INA) bt Asmaa Badie Tawfeek/Noran Hassan El Banna (EGY) 21-5, 21-5; 3-Aparna Balan/Shruti Kurien (IND) w/o Ayu Rahmasari/Dwi Agustiwati (INA); Jyotsna Polavarapu/Pradanya Gadre (IND) bt Meenakshi Nair/Mohita Sehdev (IND) 21-16, 21-14; Debby Susanto/Richi Puspita Dili (INA) bt Jui Agaskar/Saili Rane (IND) 21-17, 21-13.

Mixed Doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): 1-Diju Valianti/Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Ram C Vijay/Megha Ninan Merin 21-8, 21-9; 2-Raj Veeran/Renuga Veeran (AUS) w/o Tanveer Gill/Mohita Sehdev (IND); 3-Arun Vishnu/Aparna Balan (IND) bt KS Hersen/Meenakshi Nair (IND) 21-13, 21-14; 4-Muhammad Rijal/Debby Susanto (IND) bt Pranav Chopra/Prajatka Sawant (IND) 19-21, 21-8, 21-16; Chayut Triyachart/Lei Yao (SIN) bt Mohammed Rizki Delynugraha/Richi Puspita Dili (INA) bt 17-21, 21-19, 21-17; Hendri Kurniawan Saputra/Yu Yan Vanessa Neo (INA) bt Prem Singh/Radhika Singh (IND) 21-8, 21-8; Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Jishnu Sanyal/Jyotsna Polavarapu (IND) 18-21, 21-12, 21-19; Ricky Widianto/Jenna Gozali (INA) bt Venkat Gaurav/Juhi Dewagan (IND) 21-12, 21-14.