India’s Jayaram bows out of Macau Open 2019

Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram suffered a straight-games defeat - 21-16, 21-16 - to China’s Sun Fei Xiang in round one of the Macau Open 2019 on Wednesday.

Right from the outset, the competition was neck-and-neck, with neither player allowing the other to get more than a point ahead.

Jayaram won the race to the interval 11-10, and kept up his form post the break, getting to a 13-11 lead.

However, that’s where Sun got right back into the match, drawing even at 13-13 and then holding on to the lead thereafter. As Sun kept winning rally after rally, Jayaram stalled out at 15 points for the longest time before the Chinese won the first game 21-16.

Rinse, repeat

The second game started out like the first, with neither shuttler ever leading by more than a point and the score reading 11-10 in favour of Sun heading into the interval. However, just as before, Jayaram started running out of steam post the break, and soon, he was trailing his opponent 18-12. Despite a late fightback, there was no stopping Sun as he took another 21-16 triumph to knock the Indian out of the event.

Jayaram is yet to reach a semi-final this year, with one of his recent defeats coming at the Hyderabad Open quarter-finals when he lost to fellow countryman Sourabh Verma. It’s also his fourth first-round elimination across his BWF Super 100 and Super 300 attempts this season.

Sun will face South Korea's Son Wan Ho next in round two on Thursday.

No joy for Indians

It was not India’s first loss to China on the day either. Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka lost to China's Cai Yan Yan 21-19, 21-12 in the women’s singles match. That was followed by Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram's 21-17, 21-19 defeat to China's Lin Fang Ling and Zhou Xin Ru in the women's doubles.

Vasantha Kumar Hanumaiah Ranganatha and Ashith Surya lost their men's doubles match to the Chinese Taipei duo of Lin Chia Yu and Yang Ming-Tse in straight sets 21-14, 21-14 as well, making it a day to forget for India overall.