It was a new high for Indian badminton in the Indonesian Open Super Series tournament. As many as three Indians, led by World No 2 Saina Nehwal, stormed into the quarter-finals at Jakarta on Thursday. But the biggest victory was scored by Ajay Jayaram, who stunned fourth seed and world number seven Sony Dwi Kuncoro 22-20, 21-12 in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Saina secured a quarterfinal berth with a 21-13, 21-19 win over Sayaka Takahashi of Japan in the women’s singles. Also to move into the last eight stage was World No 23 RMV Gurusaidutt who waged a grim battle against Kazumasa Sakai, also of Japan, before winning 21-12, 9-21, 21-19. It equaled India’s best ever performance in a Super Series tournament.
Last year at the China Open, Jayaram, Gurusaidutt and Sourabh Verma had entered the quarterfinals. Top seed Lee Chong Wei ended the valiant run of young B Sai Praneeth 21-18, 21-12. Ranked 61 in the world, Praneeth packed off former world champion Taufiq Hidayat in his farewell match on Wednesday. But undoubtedly, it was Jayaram’s day. Showing great resilience, Jayaram silenced the home crowd with a well-fought win over the Indonesian. The first game was fought bitterly. The players had to dig in deep to win the battle and the lead frequently. At one stage, Jayaram clawed back at 12-14 and then ran away to a 20-18 lead but Kuncoro saved two match points. However, Jayaram won the next two points to win the first game 22-20 in 19 minutes. Jayaram simply demolished Kuncoro in the second game. He will meet world number 22 Mark Zwiebler of Germany in the quarter-finals. Jayaram’s best performance in the Super Series was a semifinal appearance in the China Masters tournament last year.
However it was curtains for the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradyna Gadra who lost to Indonesia’s Anneka Feinya Agustin and Della Destiara Haris 13-21, 21-19.
Earlier in the first match of the day, Ashwini and Tarun Kona went down fighting to seventh seed Robert Mateuriak and Nadiezda Zieba of Polan 14-21, 21-17, 13-21 in the mixed doubles event. Sourabh Verma, too, made his exit with a 16-21, 6-21 defeat to third seed Pengyu Du of China.