Skycity New Zealand Open: Jayaram, Bhat in third round

FILE PHOTO: Ajay Jayaram

Third seed Ajay Jayaram of India made it to the third round of the Skycity New Zealand Open on Thursday, a day of mixed luck for India.

Jayaram’s second round win over Marius Myhre (Norway) was a reverse of his first-round win over Winson Neo of Malaysia. Jayaram struggled to get past Myhre in the first game, with the Norwegian staying close to the Indian. However, with Jayaram earning three game points at 20-17, it looked like he would cruise through. But Myhre refused to give up and equalised at 20-all. He went 21-20 ahead, but Jayaram managed to hang in and took the first game 24-22.

The loss of the first game seemed to demoralise Myhre, and the second game was over in a jiffy as Jayaram won it 21-5.

Meanwhile, his compatriots Chetan Anand and Anand Pawar were shown the door. Fourteenth seed Chetan Anand was involved in an hour-long battle with Parinyawat Thongnuam (Thailand) before falling 17-21 21-17 21-12, while Anand Pawar, who upset recent Australian Open champion Tian Houwei in the first round, could not sustain his momentum. Pawar came up short against Wan Chia-Hsin (Taipei) 21-16 21-14.

Arvind Bhat had little trouble in getting past fellow-Indian Kirtesh Dhindhwal 21-16 21-12. Guru Sai Dutt and women’s singles player Sarada Jasti were due to play later on the day – while Jasti was to take on Vicki Copeland (New Zealand), Guru Sai will face Wong Tze Beryno Jiann of Malaysia – a match the Indian should be able to win.

Jayaram next takes on 12th seed Hong Ji Hoon of Korea, while Bhat awaits the winner of the match between Guo Kai (China) and Andre Kurniawan Tedjono (Indonesia).