P.V. Sindhu through to quarters, Jayaram stuns Gemke

BASEL: India's Ajay Jayaram on Thursday stunned Swiss third seed Rasmus Gemke to reach the quarter-finals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament while reigning women's world champion P.V. Sindhu cruised into the last eight with a straight games win over USA's Iris Wang.

Jayaram, who currently has a world ranking of 60, beat the 12th ranked Gemke 21-18, 17-21, 21-13 to set up a match against Thai eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

Second seed Sindhu saw off the 40th-ranked Iris 21-13, 21-14 in a match that lasted 35 minutes. Sindhu earlier beat Turkish world no. 29 Neslihan Yigit in straight games but now faces a tricky match-up with Thai fifth seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the day, Kidambi Srikanth beat France's Thomas Rouxel in three games to enter the quarter-finals. Srikanth beat Rouxel 21-10, 14-21, 21-14 in 52 minutes. He will now face Thai sixth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen, who beat the Netherlands' Mark Caljouw 21-9, 21-16.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also eased into the quarter-finals in the mixed doubles category after beating Indonesia's Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari 21-18, 21-16. Rankireddy and Ponnappa had earlier stunned Indonesian second seeds Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in their first round tie on the first day of the tournament on Wednesday.

Sourabh Verma's campaign in Basel came to an end as he lost 17-21, 14-21 to Thai eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

World championships bronze medallist Sai Praneeth takes on Spain's Pablo Abian while second seeded men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face Indonesia's Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.

Rankireddy and Shetty had secured a hard fought 21-18, 19-21, 21-16 win over Scotland's Christopher and Matthew Grimley on Wednesday. IANS

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