SINGAPORE, April 11 — Defending champion Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai made a short journey at the Singapore Badminton Open today after losing to Japanese pair Yuki Kaneko-Misaki Matsutomo.

In just 36 minutes, the Malaysian mixed doubles pair had to bow to their opponent 24-22 21-10 at the tournament which is held at the Indoor Stadium here.

In the first round of the tournament yesterday, the sixth seeded pair had made short work of Indonesian pair Alfian Eko Prasetya-Marsheilla Gischa Islami.

The tournament offers a total prize money of US$355,000.

Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing sailed through to the quarter-finals by upsetting Kohei Gondo-Ayane Kurihara of Japan 19-21 21-9 21-17.

Fourth-seeded pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying subdued Lu Ching Yao-Lee Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei 21-15 21-15.

Malaysia has five entries for this category.

For the men’s singles which also has five entries saw national shuttler, Lee Zii Jia, the only one left in the second round, failed to make it to the quarter final after losing to Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 13-21 and 12-21.

As for the men’s doubles, national pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong outpaced Thailand’s Tinn Isriyanet-Kittisak Namdash 21-15 21-10.

Second seeded Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen of China however defeated another Malaysian pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik 21-11 21-19.

Chooi Kah Ming-Low Juan Shen failed to qualify for the quarter-finals as well after being beaten by eighth seed Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 22-20 and 21-17. — Bernama