Ajay Jayaram, lone Indian standing in Indonesian Masters

Ajay Jayaram is the lone surviving Indian in the Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold in Balikpapan at the end of Thursday's round of matches.

The day saw all the other Indians including 2014 winner HS Prannoy crash out. Third seed Jayaram won two rounds of matches – second and third rounds – on Thursday to enter the quarterfinals.

Jayaram defeated fellow Indian and sparring partner Parupalli Kashyap in the second round before putting it across Indnesia Reksy Aureza Megananda in three games.

Jayaram had it easy against Kashyap, who was playing his first tournament since March, 21-7 21-12 in 27 minutes in the second round before being pushed to the wall by local shuttler Megananda. Jayaram, after losing the first game 12-21, came back strongly to win the next two games 21-12 21-19 to set up a quarterfinal showdown with 11th seed Shi Yuqi of China.

The other Indians to fall by the way side included seventh-seed Prannoy, who won his second round match but lost in the pre-quarterfinals, as did 10th-seeded B Sai Praneeth.

India's results (Men's singles):

Round 3: 3-Ajay jayaram bt Reksy Aureza Megananda (INA) 18-21 21-12 21-19, 10-B Sai Praneeth lost to 5-Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA) 14-21 13-21, 7-HS Prannoy lost to 12-Huang Yuxiang (CHN) 21-19 19-21 21-23
Round 2: Sai Praneeth bt Kantaphon Wangcharoen (THA) 18-21 21-14 21-15, Prannoy bt Joo Ven Soong (MAS) 21-16 15-21 21-16, Ajay Jayaram bt Parupalli Kashyap 21-7 21-12