Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram suffered a shocking defeat against lower-ranked Yuekun Chen of China in the opening round of the China Masters following a marvelous performance at the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL).
Previously, the world number 24 Indian had hammered the world number 13 Wing ki Wong in Guangzhou, before squashing world number 5 Tien Minh Nguyen twice and subsequently world number 9 Jan o Jorgensen in the IBL. Unfortunately, he could not recreate that magic at the Olympic Sports Center in Xincheng Gymnasium.
Remarkably the Mumbai-based shuttler, who had represented champions Hyderabad Hotshots, lost by 14-21 21-23 in 36 minutes to world number 30 Chen in men's singles. In addition, Jayaram failed to play his natural game as Chen dominated the nets and didn't allow the Indian to advance closer in the first game.
However in the second game, Jayaram recovered from 0-4 down to march forward to a 10-7 lead at one stage. Anyway, Chen was not ready to surrender so easily and following a tough fight, it was the Chinese who won.
Next, Jayaram will play in the Japan Open.
