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Dutch Open: Jayaram, Guru reach quarter-finals

Last updated on: October 09, 2015 15:37 IST

India’s Ajay Jayaram

India’s Ajay Jayaram in action. Photograph: PTI

Defending champion Ajay Jayaram and Commonwealth bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt cruised into the men's singles quarter-finals at the $50,000 Dutch Open Grand Prix, in Almere, on Friday.

Following a maiden runner-up finish at the Korea Super Series, world No 25 Jayaram continued his good run to put it across Finland's Kasper Lehikoinen 21-14, 21-13 in a lop-sided contest that lasted 31 minutes.

The Bangalore-born shuttler next meets Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia.

The Indian has a 2-1 record against the Malaysian, having beaten Iskandar at the 2009 Malaysia GPG and 2010 Smiling Fish International Series. The solitary defeat was when he retired midway through their meeting at the Syed Modi GPG earlier this year.

Gurusaidutt, seeded ninth, saw off Ukraine's Dmytro Zavadsky 21-12, 21-11 to set up a match with 12th seed Raul Must of Estonia.

The two last played each other five years ago. Guru had beaten Raul at the 2009 Denmark Open Super Series, while the Estonia shuttler defeated the Indian at the 2010 German Open.

India's top men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy staved off a challenge from the Netherlands' Mark Caljouw and Jelle Maas, winning 21-13, 19-21, 21-18.]

The second seeds next take on the German combo of Max Schwenger and Josche Zurwonne.

Meanwhile, it was curtains for P C Thulasi. She went down fighting 19-21, 23-21, 19-21 to Ireland's Chloe Magee in a women's singles match that lasted an hour and 19 minutes.

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