Shuttler Jayaram reaches Korea Open semis

Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram came out with one of his best performances in recent years to beat Japan's Sho Sasaki and enter the men's singles semi-finals of the $600,000 Korea Open Superseries here on Friday.

Mumbai's Jayaram took an hour and six minutes to move past World No.26 Sasaki 21-19, 16-21, 21-16 at the S.K. Handball Stadium. With the win, the World No.32 Indian levelled his head-to-head to 2-2 against the Japanese.

Jayaram, who turns 28 later this month, will take on Chinese Taipei's seventh seed Chou Tien Chen for a place in the summit clash. The Mumbaikar has a 2-2 record against the World No.7.

In the quarter-final, after sharing the first two games, it all boiled down to the decider where the Indian just about had enough energy left, after a long battle, to pull it of.

In the topsy-turvy game it was Sasaki who led at the start. But from 6-9 down, Jayaram levelled the contest at 12-all.

From there, Jayaram never looked back and kept on increasing the lead against the fatigued Japanese and closed the game in his favour to win the contest.