Lee Chong Wei beats Ajay Jayaram in the Men’s Singles first round: 2011 India Open Super Series
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei has defeated Ajay Jayaram of India in the Men’s Singles first round of the 2011 India Open Super Series, in New Delhi, India, today on April 27. The world number one and top seed of the event, Chong Wei, had to work very hard to beat the impressive Indian in a straight set fight. In the next round, the Malaysian will be up against either Lee Hyun Il of Korea or Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia.
The Indian put up a great show by delivering a wonderful performance in the opening points of the match where he remained toe-to-toe with the top seed by reaching at 6-6. Chong Wei then scored two consecutive points, but the Indian levelled the score again at 8-8. Despite the huge gap of skills and ranking, Jayaram remained quite close to the world number one. At the interval, Chong Wei was leading the game with a slight margin of 11-9.
After the interval, the Indian narrowed the gap by taking the opening point of the second part. Chong Wei remained struggling against the aggressive Indian and could not manage to take a good lead. Jayaram was playing at his best in front of his home crowd. The top seed accelerated his speed and established a three-point gap of 15-12, which was levelled by the young Indian at 15-15.
The Malaysian changed the tactics that earned him a four-point lead of 19-15. Jayaram did not give up this fight and played positively took him at 19-20, where the Malaysian scored the remaining point and won the first set with a 21-19 margin, in 18 minutes.
Jayaram played superb game in the opening half of the second set. The score remained equal at 10-10 where the Malaysian scored one point to take a slight lead of 11-10 at the end of the first half. After the break, Jayaram played better and levelled the score by reaching 14-14.
The Indian was incredible in his game as he was matching the speed of the world number one. Jayaram took a three-point lead of 18-15 by playing an attacking game. Chong Wei became aggressive at this stage and scored the remaining six points in a row and won the set by a 21-18 margin, in 19 minutes. The final score of this superb 37-minute straight-set match was 21-19 and 21-18.
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