Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, Anand Pawar and Arvind Bhat reached the second round of the German Open badminton championship after notching up contrasting victories in their respective men's singles matches at Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
The World No. 32 Jayaram, seeded 10th, prevailed over Brice Leverdez of France 21-12, 21-18 in just over half an hour on Tuesday night to set up a clash with Riichi Takeshita of Japan in the second round.
Mumbai's Anand Pawar was however stretched to a three-game match but the World No. 51 defeated Michael Lahnsteiner of Austria 22-20, 16-21, 21-16 in the end at the RWE-Sporthalle. Pawar will meet sixth seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the next round.
Arvind was up against compatriot Anup Sridhar and the 33-year-old managed a 21-17, 21-15 victory to sail into the second round. He will take on second seed Boonsak Ponsana next.
However, it was curtains for RMV Gurusaidutt, who lost to Bin Qiao of China 17-21, 11-21 in another men's singles match.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan reached the main draw. The duo defeated local pair Hannes Kaesbauer and Kira Kattenbeck 21-15, 21-10 in the first round and then prevailed over Irish brother and sister combo of Sam Magee and Chloe Magee 21-19, 21-12 in a 27-minute match.
Photograph: Parivartan Sharma/Reuters
