BASEL (SWITZERLAND) (TIP): Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram inflicted a straight-game defeat on Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei to reach the quarterfinals of USD 120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton championship here on March 12. Jayaram, who had won the Dutch Open last year, prevailed over 13th seed Wang 21-17, 21-16 in a 35-minute men’s singles match to set up a clash with Japan‘s Kazumasa Sakai. Interestingly, the 27-year-old from Bangalore had beaten Wang early this month in the qualification round of All England Championship in Birmingham.

Jayaram had notched up a hard-fought 21-7, 21-23, 21-19 win over Belgium’s Yuhan Tan to reach the pre-quarterfinals on Wednesday night. Anand Pawar, however, went down fighting 21-19, 19-21, 15-21 to Sakai in another pre-quarterfinal match that lasted for 57 minutes at St. Jakobshalle stadium.