Badminton Asia Championships: Sindhu reaches quarters, Jayaram loses out

PV Sindhu after defeating Indonesia’s Dinar Dyah Ayustine in the first round of the Asian Championships faced Japanese Aya Ohori in the second round. This match too seemed comfortable for Sindhu as she defeated the World No.20 in straight sets 21-14, 21-15 within 40 minutes.

Start of the tournament for Sindhu with two straight victories perfectly personifies her current raging form. She dominated both the sets against Ohori and did not allow her to take a lead. With this win she improved her head to head against Ohori to 2-0.

However, the day was not so bright for the Indian star shuttler, Ajay Jayaram. He had defeated fifth seeded China’s Tian Houwie in the first round in a hard fought battle. But the second round did not turn up to be that great. Jayaram lost out to Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in straight sets 19-21, 10-21. The match lasted just 35 minutes.

Sindhu and Jayaram were the only two Indians who qualified for the second round yesterday after the loss of Saina and the rest of the Indian contingent. With the departure of Jayaram, Sindhu now remains as India’s only hope in the Championship. She will face China’s HE Bingjiao in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The Chinese is currently ahead of her in terms of head to head scores of 4-3. But Sindhu’s rising form can upset this World No.7’s hopes of progressing in the tournament.