Ajay Jayaram in action during a badminton match
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and Rituparna Das progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the USD 75,000 Vietnam Open Tour Super 100 tournament on Wednesday.
Jayaram, who had finished runners-up at White Nights, defeated Indonesia's Gatjra Piliang Fiqihila Cupu 21-7 21-16 to set up a clash with top-seeded Brazilian Ygor Coelho, who staved off a spirited challenge from India's Siril Verma.
Coelho defeated Siril 22-20 17-21 21-17 in another match. Siril had defeated compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-17 21-16 earlier in the day.
In women's singles, former national champion Rituparna beat Japan's Shiori Saito 21-13 21-14.
However, other Indians who bit the dust today include Rasika Raje, Mugdha Agrey, Vaidehi Choudhari and mixed doubles pairs -- Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram (sixth seeds) and Dhruv Kapila and Meghana Jakkampudi.
Rasika went down to Malaysia's Yen Mei Ho 16-21 13-21, Mugdha lost 13-21 12-21 to China's seventh seed Han Yue and Vaidehi suffered a 14-21 13-21 loss to USA's Crystal Pan.
The Japanese pair of Tadayuki Urai and Rena Miyaura beat sixth seed Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram 21-15 21-16, while Chinese pair of Jiang Zhenbang and
Chen Yingxue ended Indian combination of Dhruv Kapila and Meghana Jakkampudi 21-17 18-21 23-21 in another match.
Mithun Manjunath, who had reached the quarters at Russian Open, had beaten Japan's Ryotaro Maruo 11-21 21-14 21-15 earlier in the day.
