KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 ― National mixed doubles pair Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See pulled off a stunner against world number eight Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in the quarter-finals of the Toyota Thailand Open in Bangkok, today.
The duo ranked 35th in the world, took 68 minutes to secure a 12-21, 21-19, 21-19 victory against the sixth-seeded pair from Indonesia at the Impact Arena.
"We struggled in the first game. Maybe we were not used to the drift. We have not played on Court Two yet and the drift is a little bit different, so it made everything harder. In the second and third games, slowly our shots came back and we did quite well.
“They have their strong points. Physically we are probably not as strong as them. But our tactics, and Yee See’s speed at the front was faster than theirs, and it made our game smoother,” Pang Ron was quoted as saying on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website at www.bwfbadminton.com.
Pang Ron-Yee See will meet world number six and the tournament’s fourth-seeded pair Seo Seung Jae-Chae Yujung of South Korea, in the semi-finals tomorrow.
"As I have said before every match, there is no pressure because we are underdogs, so hopefully, we can bring something back for Malaysia,” said Pang Ron.
Malaysian women’s double pair Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and men’s double duo Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik have also made it into the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Liew Daren failed to keep up his fine run in the men’s singles event, losing 16-21, 15-21 to fourth seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Quarter-final results:
(Note: Malaysians unless stated; [ ] denotes seeding)
Men’s Singles:
Liew Daren lost to [4] Viktor Axelsen (DEN) 16-21, 15-21
Men’s Doubles:
Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi lost to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (IND) 18-21, 22-24
[8] Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik bt Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong 21-16 21-13
Women’s Doubles:
Vivian Hoo-Yap Cheng Wen lost to [3] Seo Lee So Hee-Shin Seung Chan (KOR) 13-21, 16-21
Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean bt M.Thinaah-Pearly Tan Koong Le 22-20, 21-12
Mixed Doubles:
[5] Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying lost to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) 21-18, 22-24, 20-22
Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See bt [6] Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (INA) 12-21, 21-19, 21-19 ― Bernama
