Shuttler Ajay Jayaram notched up a stunning victory over higher-ranked Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, while Parupalli Kashyap survived a scare in the opening round of the men’s singles competition in the 2013 BWF World Championships here on Monday.
The 25-year-old Ajay, ranked 24th, was good in his attack as well as defence and played a patient game to beat world number 12 Wong 22-20, 17-21, 21-15 in a 64-minute duel. He will next take on Pablo Abian of Spain in the second round.
The Chennai-born shuttler played a dominating first game and didn’t allow Wing to get near him, racing away to 20-16 at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium. However, Wing was not ready to let it go so easily as he clawed back but Jayaram managed to pocket the game.
However, in the second game, Jayaram let go a 13-8 lead to allow Wing make a comeback. Jayaram learnt from his mistakes and tried to cut down on errors in the decider. He gathered a good lead and didn’t let it go to eventually emerge victorious.
World no. 13 Kashyap, meanwhile, had an unexpectedly tough encounter against the 98th-ranked Raul Must of Estonia. Raul troubled the Indian early on but ran out of steam as Kashyap managed a 19-21, 21-14, 21-9 win in 56 minutes.
India’s doubles and mixed doubles pairs, meanwhile, had a bad day in office as they failed to cross the first hurdle.
While the combinations of Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu lost to Chinese Taipei’s Min Chun Liao and Hsiao Huan Chen 15-21, 17-21 in the mixed doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona suffered a 18-21, 21-12, 19-21 defeat to Japan’s Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda in the opening round.
Lin Dan makes convincing start
Superstar Lin Dan moved effortlessly through to the second round of the world championships in putting in a powerful performance after a year on the sidelines.
The reigning world champion trounced American Sattawat Pongnairat 21-6, 21-9 showing flashes of his class.