Jayaram eyes Dutch title

After reaching his maiden Super Series final at Korea Open, Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram will now look to continue his good run at the USD 50,000 Dutch Open Grand Prix, which starts with the qualifiers here on Tuesday.

A place in the finals of Korea Open saw him jump to World No. 25 spot and Jayaram, seeded third, will look to put the best foot forward when he opens his campaign against Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands.

Among other Indians, ninth seed RMV Gurusaidutt will take on Belgium’s Maxime Moreels, while fourth seed B Sai Praneeth will meet Denmark’s Steffen Rasmussen in the opening round of men’s singles competition.

Anand Pawar, seeded 14th, will face Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia in another match.

In women’s singles, bronze medallist at Uber Cup and Asian Games last year, P C Thulasi will take on a qualifier in the first round. Mixed doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Prajakta Sawant will fight it out with Swede combo of Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom, while Kona Tarun and N Sikki Reddy will be up against Netherlands’s Jacco Arends and Selena Piek.