PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will be looking for redemption at the Australian Open which begins in Sydney today, after none of them made it past the quarter-finals in the last two tournaments in the Korean and Japan Opens.
Only Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (pic) reached the quarter-finals in South Korea and Japan respectively.
World champions Aaron-Wooi Yik will be hoping to capitalise on the absence of China pairs and current world No. 2 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India to reach the semi-finals at least.
Their first true test will be in the last eight where they are expected to face Japan’s Keiichiro Matsui-Yoshinori Takeuchi before a probable crunch match against Japan’s world No. 5 Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the last four.
If Aaron-Wooi Yik can get their act together, they could face world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Ria Ardianto in the final.
A fine run in Sydney will be a much needed boost before they defend their world crown in Copenhagen from Aug 21-27.
In the doubles, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi must be prepared for a tough second-round hurdle against rejuvenated Taiwan pair Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin who won their first title since being crowned as the Olympic champions in 2021 when they ruled the Japan Open in Tokyo on Sunday.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin also face a strong challenge in the form of South Koreans Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung Jae while Taiwan Open winners Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun will probably clash against Fajar-Rian in the second round.
In the women’s doubles, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have a difficult first-round clash against third seeded China pair Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu today.
In the men’s singles, independent shuttler Lee Zii Jia could be facing a tricky first-round match against Leong Jun Hao tomorrow as the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) player is likely to survive the qualifying rounds today.
BAM shuttler Ng Tze Yong’s focus will be on overcoming Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the first round before even thinking about a match against either Japan Open runner-up Jonatan Christie of Indonesia or former world champion Kento Momota of Japan.
