Rajiv Ouseph insisted a comeback was always on the cards at badminton’s World Championships in Denmark as he recovered to beat Chong Wei Feng in the first round of the men’s singles.
Ouseph lost the first set 21-17 to the same man who defeated him at the same stage of the worlds last year as well as in the final of the mixed team event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
However Ouseph fought back to take the next two sets 24-22 21-16 for a victory in 65 minutes and he admitted afterwards that he always felt he had the beating of the Malaysian.
“It was quite tough and I just stuck in there as long as I could. It was quite close last time I played him and if I just stuck in there maybe he would get nervous again,” said Ouseph.
“When it got close in the second set I started playing my best and again at the end of the third. I know he is a quality player and he was putting me under a lot of pressure in the first set and a half.
“But I could see glimpses of him slowing down towards the end of the second. I am just happy to get through.”
Elsewhere Commonwealth champions Gabby and Chris Adcock won their mixed doubles second-round match 21-16, 21-9 against another Malaysian pair in Tan Aik Quan and Lai Pei Jing.
Commonwealth bronze medallists Chris Langridge and Peter Mills defeated American pair Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat 21-10 21-10 in the men’s doubles first round.
That came after Langridge had seen his mixed doubles partnership with Heather Olver, which produced silver at the Commonwealth Games, ended with a first-round defeat.
They went down 21-15 21-14 against Singapore’s ninth seeds Danny Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo with both will now set to concentrate on level doubles.
Elsewhere English national champion Sarah Walker was forced to withdraw from her second-round clash with Korean fifth seed Sung Ji Hyun because of an abdominal injury.
Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees lost 21-16 21-17 to Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the men’s singles first round as did Martin Campbell and Patrick Machugh in the same stage of the men’s doubles and Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier in the mixed second round.
© Sportsbeat 2014