KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Soong Joo Ven and Liew Daren kept the Malaysian flag flying in men’s singles when they qualified for the second round of the 2019 Australian Open badminton championship at the Sydney Olympic Park.
Joo Ven, ranked 72nd in the world, upset Hong Kong’s Vincent Wong Wing Ki 21-16, 21-18 in the first round today and will meet Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin in the second round tomorrow.
Daren, who will play topseed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan tomorrow, beat Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito after the latter retired in the second set.
However, top Malaysian men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia, Cheam June Wei and Chong Wei Feng were shown the exit in the opening round.
Women’s singles player Goh Jin Wei was beaten by teammate Soniia Cheah 21-12, 21-18 in the first round. Soniia will meet fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the next round.
Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani also did well in men’s doubles to beat Japan’s Mahiro Kaneko-Yunosuke Kubota 21-16, 21-19 in the first round and will meet China’s Han Chengkai-Zhou Haodong next.
However, the more established pairs of Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong crashed out of the first round today.
In the mixed doubles, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing defeated Australia’s Tang Huaidong-Jodee Vega 21-9, 21-8 while Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying beat Hong Kong’s Yeung Ming Nok-Yeung Nga Ting 23-21, 21-15.
In the second round, Kian Meng-Pei Jing will meet Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet while Peng Soon-Liu Ying will play Ren Xiangyu-Zhou Chaomin of China.
Malaysia’s interest in women’s doubles also ended with the early defeats of Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and Vivian Hoo-Yap Cheng Wen. — Bernama
