Never give up: Leong Jun Hao will be looking to pick himself up for the Swiss Open next.
PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao was left to rue an error-strewn performance which led to a disappointing opening round defeat to South Korea’s Jyeon Hyeok-jin in the Orleans Masters.
World No. 36 Jun Hao was hoping to take advantage of the absence of the world’s top players in the tournament, who were competing in the All-England in Birmingham instead, but could not pass his first test when he went down 21-17, 8-21, 17-21 to world No. 51 Hyeok-jin in Orleans on Wednesday.
Jun Hao was behind 12-20 in the third game and tried to claw himself back but was too late to save the match.
It was a frustrating exit for the 24-year-old, who is still yet to clear the early round in individual tournaments this year.
Jun Hao lost to home favourite Anthony Ginting and India’s S. Sankar Muthusamy in the Indonesian Masters and Thailand Masters respectively last month.
“I’m still lacking on a few aspects based on the match today (Wednesday),” admitted Jun Hao.
“I made simple mistakes in the middle part of the third game and made the gap too much for me to catch up.”
Jun Hao will be looking to pick himself up for the Swiss Open next which gets underway in Basel next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there was better fortunes for independent player Cheam June Wei, who beat Israel’s Misha Zilberman 21-13, 21-13.
June Wei will face Hyeok-jin next for a place in the last eight.
In the mixed doubles, Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See exited the tournament early after losing 20-22, 22-20, 9-21 to Taiwan’s Chen Cheng-kuan-Hsu Yin-hui.
Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin though progressed to the second round after ousting Germany’s Jones Jansen-Nguyen Thuc Phuong 22-20, 21-12.
RESULTS
Malaysians only
First round
Men’s singles: Cheam June Wei bt Misha Zilberman (Isr) 21-13, 21-13; Jeon Hyeok-jin (Kor) bt Leong Jun Hao 17-21, 21-8, 21-17.
Men’s doubles: Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong bt Ruben Garcia-Carlos Piris (Spa) 21-23, 21-15, 21-15.
Mixed doubles: Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin bt Jones Jansen-Nguyen Thuc Phuong (Ger) 22-20, 21-12; Chen Cheng-kuan-Hsu Yin-hui (Tpe) bt Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See 22-20, 20-22, 21-9.
