In form: Cheam June Wei beat South Korea’s Jeon Hyeok-jin 21-18, 27-25 in the second round of the Orleans Masters.
PETALING JAYA: Former international Ong Ewe Hock has called on shuttler Cheam June Wei to aim higher after the latter secured a morale boosting win over South Korea’s Jeon Hyeok-jin to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals in the Orleans Masters.
World No. 62 June Wei had a disappointing start to the year where he suffered early round exits in both the Thailand Masters in January and German Open earlier this month.
Ewe Hock though, who has been coaching the 27-year-old since the end of last year, kept faith with his charge and was rewarded when June Wei narrowly beat world No. 51 Hyeok-jin 21-18, 27-25 in the second round in Orleans on Thursday.
It was an impressive win for the independent player considering that a day earlier, the Korean had stunned another Malaysian, world No. 36 Leong Jun Hao in three games.
Hyeok-jin also caused a huge shock when he toppled world No. 10 Lee Zii Jia in the Hangzhou Asian Games men’s team event last October.
Ewe Hock was pleased with June Wei’s victory and wants his charge to continue his good form especially in the absence of the world’s top players in the tournament.
“I’m trying to push him to break into the world’s top 30 by the end of the year. So, he needs to do well to achieve this target,” said Ewe Hock.
“Since there are no top players in this competition, he should reach the semi-finals or final.”
June Wei, who is the last Malaysian men’s singles player left in the tournament, will next play Japan’s world No. 70 Koo Takahashi for a place in the last four.
Meanwhile, there was mixed fortunes in the men’s doubles when Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri made it into the last eight but independent pair Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong crashed out.
Hon Jian-Haikal defeated Denmark’s William Boe-Christian Kjaer 21-15, 21-18 to set up a meeting with China’s Huang Di-Liu Yi.
Hang Yee-Eng Cheong though went down 18-21, 17-21 to Taiwan’s Chen Zhi-ray-Lin Yu-chieh. Malaysians onlySecond round
Men’s singles: Cheam June Wei bt Jeon Hyeok-jin (Kor) 21-18, 27-25.
Men’s doubles: Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri bt William Boe-Christian Kjaer (Den) 21-15, 21-18; Chen Zhi-ray-Lin Yu-chieh (Tpe) bt Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong 21-18, 21-17.
Mixed doubles: Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin bt Julien Maio-Lea Palermo (Fra) 21-16, 21-18.
