Familiar foes: Goh Sze Fei (left) and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani will next play Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi.
PETALING JAYA: It was a good day for the Malaysian doubles shuttlers in the China Open when four out of five pairs cleared their respective first-round hurdles.
Independent men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani led the charge with a hard- fought 17-21, 21-12, 21-19 win over homesters Chen Boyang-Liu Yi at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Changzhou yesterday.
World No. 12 Sze Fei-Izzuddin were pushed all the way by world No. 21 Boyang-Liu Yi before staying cool to prevail in a tight deciding game.
The independent pair were relieved to come through the tough test.
“It was not our best performance today (yesterday). We felt pressured by them in the first game but we are glad that we could come back in the next two games,” said Izzuddin in a post match interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Sze Fei said: “In the first game, we played too carefully and made a lot of simple mistakes.
“Our opponents today (yesterday) played very fast and we tried to catch up and attack more.”
Sze Fei-Izzuddin will next play fellow Malaysians Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi, who easily beat Americans Chen Zhi Yi-Presley Smith 21-11, 21-12 in their opening match.
Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun are also through to the next round after ousting home pair Xie Haonan-Zeng Weihan 21-17, 21-19.
Wei Chong-Kai Wun, who reached a career high No. 13 in the latest world rankings, could go up against South Korea’s reigning world champions and Hong Kong Open winners Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae next.
The Koreans will open their campaign today against another Malaysian pair, Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri, who also moved up to their career best ranking of No. 18.
Meanwhile, independent pair Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong narrowly missed out on a place in the second round when they went down fighting 21-18, 19-21, 15-21 to England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy.
There were better fortunes though for mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie, who defeated Singapore’s Terry Hee-Jessica Tan 21-13, 21-15.
Standing in world No. 12 Soon Huat-Shevon’s way next is Thailand’s world No. 23 Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran.
