PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth registered contrasting victories to move into the quarterfinals, while Ajay Jayaram stunned third seed Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-18, 17-21, 21-13 in the second round of the Swiss Open BWF Super-300 tournament in Basel on Thursday.
Sindhu drubbed Iris Wang of USA 21-13, 21-14 and Srikanth fought back after losing the second game to beat Thomas Roouxel of France 21-10, 14-21, 21-14.
Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksai Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa continued their brilliant run with an impressive win against Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia 21-18, 21-16 in the second round.
World No.60 Jayaram took one hour six minutes to get past world No.12 Rasmus. Jayaram won the first game before losing the second. From 11-9 in the third game, Jayaram scored six straight points to move clear of Rasmus. The Dane was the finalist of the Denmark Open, last October.
In the quarterfinals on Friday, Jayaram will face Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand. The three-time world junior champion defeated Sourabh Verma of India in straight games 21-17, 21-14.
Fourth seed Srikanth will square up against sixth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand at the last eight stage. Kantaphon enjoys a 1-0 win-loss record against Srikanth.
In the women’s singles quarterfinals, Sindhu will play Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand. The world No.7 Indian has a 11-1 career record against Busanan and had defeated her in the first round of the Toyota Thailand Open this January.