India's Ajay Jayaram kept his nose ahead of compatriot P Kashyap for the London Olympics qualification as he notched a straight-game victory in the first round of Asia Badminton Championships in Qingdao, China, on Tuesday.
Jayaram was the only bright spot on a gloomy day for India as the rest of the country's shuttlers failed to cross the first hurdle at the Qingdao Sports Centre Conson stadium.
World No 27 Jayaram prevailed over Chinese Taipei's Jen Hao Hsu 21-19, 21-19 in a men's singles match that lasted 54 minutes.
Kashyap, however, had a far superior competitor in world No 3 Chen Long of China and went down 9-21, 13-21 in 40 minutes.
Others to bite the dust were young shuttler H S Prannoy, who lost 6-21, 20-22 to world No 10 Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam and Sameer Verma, who went down to fourth seed Simon Santoso of Indonesia 19-21, 14-21.
Jayaram, however, had to fight all the way. At one stage in the first game he trailed 5-8 but reeled off seven straight points to forge ahead 12-8 before the scores were level 19-19.
In the second game, the Indian was head for most part after leading 4-1 initially. The world No 35 Jen though caught up at 16 before Jayaram took control and wrapped up the match.
