Shuttler Jayaram in Korea Open quarters, Praneeth ousted

Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram reached the quarter-finals of the Korea Open Superseries, while B. Sai Praneeth faltered against local favourite Wan Ho Son here on Thursday.

Jayaram moved past Chinese Huang Yuxiang 21-15, 21-18 in the second round match that ended in 40 minutes.

On Friday, the Indian will meet Lee Hyun of South Korea, who stunned world No.3 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 18-21, 21-18, 21-13 in an hour and four minutes.

Jayaram's teammate Praneeth, however, had a tough outing against sixth seed Wan, stumbling to a 9-21, 15-21 defeat in 34 minutes.

Wan will face Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus who eased past Chinese Taipei's Wei Tzu Wang 21-13, 21-11.

In other quarter-finals, Chinese fourth seed Tian Houwei will have to overcome Hong Kong's Wing Ki Vincent Wong, while Bin Qiao of China will be up against Kwang Hee Heo.

In the most surprising result in the women's singles competition, China's Chen Yufei delivered a shocking verdict against Thailand's former world champion Ratchanok Intanon with a 21-17, 21-17 triumph.

Big names Tai Tzu Ying and Sung Ji Hyun will pit against each other in the quarter-finals, while Japanese Minatsu Mitani also advanced to the last eight stage. Mitani will face Yufei.

Kim Hyo Min and Kim Ga Eun will face-off in an all South Korean battle for a place in the semi-finals.

--IANS

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