Fiercer together: Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi celebrating their win against Indonesians Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto in the Malaysian Open first round. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Men’s doubles shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi are still hungry to prolong their careers at the highest level.
Yew Sin, who turns 30 at the end of this month and Ee Yi, who will be 32 in April went through a disappointing 2024 and dropped out of the world’s top 20 bracket.
The world No. 24 pair though showed their quality when they pulled off a huge upset win over Indonesia’s world No. 4 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto to advance to the second round of the Malaysian Open.
The pros performed brilliantly to come away with a 15-21, 21-17, 21-13 victory at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil much to the delight of the home fans.
Fajar-Rian, who triumphed in the tournament in 2022, were the heavy favourites coming into the match but Yew Sin-Ee Yi used all their experience to overturn the formbook.
The Malaysians will most likely take on South Korea’s Kang Min-hyuk-Jin Yong next for a place in the last eight.
After the match, Yew Sin said: “We are still hungry to win at the highest level but we don’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves.
“Our results were not good last year and in our hearts we wanted to win against Fajar-Rian. We were more relaxed as the underdogs when we got on court and this helped us focus fully on what we needed to do and play our best.”
Ee Yi said: “There were a lot of downs for us last year. I think 80 per cent of the time were downs. Hopefully we can get better after this win.”
Yew Sin-Ee Yi’s best results last year were in the China and German Opens where they made it into the semi-finals.
The pair also reached the last eight in the home Open last year but suffered early round exits in their other tournaments which caused them to miss out on a spot in the Paris Olympics.
While the victory over Fajar-Rian was a huge boost for Yew Sin-Ee Yi, the duo don’t want to get carried away just yet.
“This win is important for us but we want to keep it low. We don’t want to be satisfied yet. We still have a tough match coming up in the next round and we need to stay focused. There are no easy matches at this level.”
Meanwhile, a disappointed Fajar-Rian admitted that they lost to the better pair on the day.
“Ong-Teo were extraordinary especially their defence. Many times, they managed to get the shuttle back when we attacked and that increased their confidence,” said Fajar.
Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun also cleared their opening round matches but the former survived a scare before pulling through. World No. 6 Aaron-Wooi Yik were made to sweat before beating the United States’ Chen Zhi-yi-Presley Smith 21-15, 16-21, 21-10.
Aaron said: “I felt my condition was okay, but perhaps with the new year, we needed some time to regain our form. I think our performance was decent; the important thing was to secure the win to advance to the second round.”
They will play either Taiwan’s Lee Fang-chih-Lee Fang-jen or Liu Kuang-heng-Yang Po-han for a place in the last eight.
World No. 14 Wei Chong-Kai Wun will face Taiwan’s world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
In the women’s doubles, Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien will go up against China’s world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning next.
