Barcelona: Malaysia’s World No. 72 Cheam June Wei made a first round exit at the Barcelona Spain Masters on Wednesday as he lost his opener to India’s Ajay Jayaram with 21-18, 16-21, 17-21 in 52 minutes.
Ajay will face the 2017 World Champion and top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the second round.
Axelsen, on the other hand, breezed past Lu Chia Hung of Taiwan 21-11, 21-11 to reach the second round.
Another Malaysian men’s singles Iskandar Zulkarnain was also stopped in the first round by Vladimir Malkov of Russia, losing 16-21, 13-21 to the Russian.
In other men’s singles competition, Singapore’s unseeded Loh Kean Yew who defeated Lin Dan to win the Thailand Masters earlier this year, pulled off an upset to beat No. 5 seed Jan Jorgensen of Denmark 21-17, 21-19 in the first round.
Loh will face India’s 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap next, who outlasted Vincent Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong 27-25 21-18 in a 53-minute battle.
In men’s doubles, Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin had to dig deep to see off Peter Briggs/Gregory Mairs England 15-21, 21-18, 21-13.
Meanwhile, No. 4 seeds Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean and unseeded Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen were able to keep Malaysia’s challenge alive in women’s doubles category as they defeated their respective opponents in the first round on Wednesday.
Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean will play Paula Lopez/Laura Santos of Spain next while Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen will take on No. 2 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida.
