KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — National men’s doubles pair, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are the only Malaysian players left standing as other shuttlers were knocked out from the Swiss Open Badminton Tournament held in Basel, Switzerland yesterday (early today Malaysian Time).
The unseeded pair pulled off a surprise by edging the eighth seeds, Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Emil Seidel of Germany;winning in 21-19, 21-15 in the second round match in the tournament held at St Jakobshalle Arena, according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website.
Malaysia’s interest in the men’s singles, however, fizzled out after two national players — Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin and Soong Joo Ven were beaten by their respective opponent.
Iskandar, who came from the qualifying round, put up a stiff competition against the former world number four, Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark before losing 19-21 and 18-21 while Soong lost 20-22 and 14-21 to the fourth seeds, Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand.
The country’s interest in the mixed doubles had already fizzled out on Tuesday after two pairs — Hoo Pang Ron-Peck Yen Wei and Chen Tang Jie-Cheah Yee See — were beaten by their respective opponents in the opening round.
Malaysia did not send any representatives in both the women singles and doubles in the US$150,000 (RM587,311) tournament. — Bernama
