KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — National top men's doubles pair, Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong got off to a perfect start by advancing to the second round in the China Open Badminton Tournament in Changzhou, China, today.

The unseeded pair, however, was pushed to the limit before edging Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India; winning in 21-19 and 22-20 in the first round match in the tournament held at Xincheng Gymnasium, Changzhou Sports Olympic Centre, according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website.

National mixed doubles pair, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing also cruised to the next round by defeating Niclas Nohr-Sara Thygesen of Denmark; 22-20 and 21-18 in the opening encounter.

Two other national mixed doubles pairs — Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and seventh seeds, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai, however, crashed out from the US$1 million (RM4.140 million) tournament after losing to their respective opponents.

Peng Soon-Liu Ying suffered back-to-back defeat to the top seeds, Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong of China;losing 18-21 and 17-21, having lost against the same opponent at the recent Japan Open.  

Goh-Lai, on the other hand, suffered an unexpected 15-21, 21-19 and 16-21 defeat to an unseeded Indonesian pair of Ricky Karandasuwardi-Debby Susanto.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's interest in the women's singles fizzled out after Soniia Cheah Su Ya lost 15-21 and 12-21 to Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the first round.

Malaysia did not send any representative in the BWF World Tour Super 1,000. — Bernama