Rajiv Ouseph admitted it was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s Show as he failed to advance beyond the second round of the men’s singles at the All England Open Badminton Championships.
Ouseph offered hope that he might produce something special in Birmingham after battling to beat Chinese seventh seed Pengyu Du 21-16, 11-21, 21-14 in the first round.
The 27-year-old stoked that hope afterwards but was unable to advanced to the third round as he lost in the second to 2012 Japanese world junior champion Kento Momota.
Ouseph fell to a 21-15, 21-10 defeat at the NIA in the West Midlands and struggled to explain why he had lost to a player who 12 months ago was ranked lower than him.
“I was trying to find the form of the day before but my opponent played really well and to be fair to him he looked really confident out there,” said Ouseph. “I think I had my chances in the first set when I got back level and maybe gave him a couple of easy points which then gave him a bit more confidence to play well in the second.
“I think I was trying to force it a little bit too much and once he started getting my attack back I was struggling a little bit. The men’s singles is a really tough discipline at the moment, there’s a lot of depth. A year ago this guy probably wasn’t in the top 50. But now he’s up there so consistency is important and it’s a case of putting a few good performances together to keep yourself going for the next couple of tournaments.”
Ouseph’s coach Jakob Hoi was less than impressed with the seven-time English champion’s performance and put the defeat to Momota down to a lack of discipline.
Hoi is sure that Ouseph has the ability to take on the best in the world but was disappointed at his lack of consistency on the court at the NIA.
“Raj can impose a threat to any opponent, he’s quite aggressive out there and he plays some good badminton,” said Hoi. But he doesn’t take responsibility to go in and say ‘hey I want this point’ and instead he plays along. There was way too much playing along and not dictating the game. It’s quite disappointing that we see that sort of lack of discipline on a clear matter of the game.”
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