PETALING JAYA: India is turning out to be a happy hunting ground for men’s doubles shuttlers Chong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri.
Just a week after capturing their maiden title together at the World Tour Super 300 Syed Modi International in Lucknow, Hon Jian-Haikal continued their superb form by claiming the Super 100 Indian Masters crown.
The duo, who moved up from No. 93 to No. 69 in the world rankings after their breakthrough victory in Lucknow, stayed steady to oust Taiwan’s Lin Bing-wei-Su Ching-heng 21-17, 23-21 in the final at the Saru Sajai Indoor Sports Complex in Assam yesterday.
The 23-year-old Hon Jian and Haikal, 20 were only paired up in August after a partnership reshuffle and have now reached three finals together.
They had also finished runners-up in the Indonesian Masters in Surabaya in October.
The pair needed some time to click after suffering early round defeats in four of their five tournaments together since combining but seemed to have found their groove.
Hon Jian-Haikal will be the pair to watch out for next year where they will be competing in higher level tourneys.
Hon Jian also did well to reach the last four of the mixed doubles event in the Indian tourney along with Go Pei Kee before going down 16-21, 21-12, 7-21 to Denmark’s Mads Vestergaard-Christine Busch.
