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India’s Ajay Jayaram cruised into the second round of the Yonex Australia Badminton Open Grand Prix Gold Championship, beating Malaysia’s Chan Kwong Beng 21-11, 21-10 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre (SCEC) on Tuesday.
Jayaram – the country’s highest seeded player in this tournament – gained the upper hand against the 140th ranked Malaysian.
The ninth seeded Indian, whose best performance in 2013 has only been a third round finish at the Yonex German Open, played to his strengths and raced away to a 11-4 lead.
The Mumbai boy won five points on the trot to push his opponent on the backfoot and soon bagged the first game at 21-11 in just 12 minutes.
Chan tried to stay competitive in the second game, with both players tied 4-4 but the 30th ranked Anand pulled ahead with some crucial points to run up a handy 8-4 lead.
The Indian Oil employee would now lock horns with Korea’s 107th ranked Dong Keun Lee in the second round.
Overall, the opening day was a bit of a mixed bag for the Indian shuttlers.
RMV Gurusaidutt made mincemeat of unheralded Australian Hu-Wen Chew 21-4, 21-7 in just 12 minutes to sail into the second round.
FILE PHOTO: RMV Gurusaidutt
The world number 36 Indian stepped on the gas from the outset and unsettled his opponent to no end, deceiving him at the net as well as coming with solid play on both flanks. The eleventh seeded player pocketed eight points on the trot – which does tell a story about the one-way traffic in the opening game and went on to clinch the first game at 21-4.
Gurusaidutt was in a tearing hurry to wrap up the match as he bagged a mammoth fifteen consecutive points to end the misery on Chew winning at 21-7.
He will now play Thailand’s 51st ranked Suppanyu Avihingsanon in the second round.
Another Indian, Anand Pawar had to rally from a game down to put it across Arif Ramadhan of Indonesia 19-21, 21-11, 21-13.
Anand, ranked 44th in the world, was slow off the blocks and consistently pressed the unforced errors button, which allowed Ramadhan to take the opening game at 21-19.
The fourteenth seeded Indian roared back, bagging the second game at 21-11 to make it a three-game affair.
The 173rd ranked Indonesian started the decider well taking a 4-1 lead but Anand rebounded to make it 5-5 before completely pulverizing his opponent to win at 21-13. He would now meet Malaysia’s 64th ranked Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the second round.
Earlier in the day, Indian old warhorse Chetan Anand lost 14-21, 16-21to Indonesia’s 78th ranked Riyanto Subagja, while 99th ranked Arvind Bhat was handed a 10-21, 18-21 defeat by top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.
