KUALA LUMPUR: It was a rather gloomy start for the Malaysian independent camp at the Spain Masters in Madrid.
Men's singles Cheam June Wei did not even make the tournament proper after crashing out in the qualifying round.
The Penang-born former national player lost in straight games 21-18, 21-18 to Singapore's Jason Teh.
Jason went on to reach the first round after seeing off India's Sameer Verma 21-10, 21-14 in the second qualifying match.
The Singaporean will play another Indian shuttler, K. Sathish Kumar on Wednesday.
Leong Jun Hao, Malaysia's sole representatives in the men's singles event, will open his campaign against homester Pablo Abian.
Meanwhile, in the men's doubles first round, Malaysia's Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong crashed out of the competition after losing 21-16, 21-19 to Danish duo William Kryger Boe-Christian Faust Kjaer.
The Danes will play China's Chen Bo Yang-Liu Yang next.