Peng Soon-Yee See continue to make heads turn

NATIONAL mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See extended their impressive streak on the international circuit when they checked into the second round of the New Zealand Open GP Gold in Auckland yesterday.

Fresh from winning the Russian Open last week, the Malaysian duo produced another superb performance to upset second seeds Hafiz Faizal-Shela Devi Aulia of Indonesia 21-10, 21-19.

Rio Olympic Games silver medallist Chan Peng Soon, however, chose to remain humble, saying: “Yes I must agree that Yee See and I have improved a lot since first being paired in June but we are not top level material yet.

“Yee See is a very young player, and I don’t want to rush our partnership. Surely with each tournament we compete in, we learn something new about ourselves.

“Personally, I think we can still improve in terms of our combination on court and also our understanding. Physically, Yee See is strong enough.”

Peng Soon-Yee See, who are bound for the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games this month, are up against another Indonesian pair Riky Widianto-Richi Puspita Dili today for a place in the quarterfinals.

Also through to the second round yesterday were men’s doubles second seeds Ong Yew SinTeo Ee Yi.

The Malaysian No 2, also bound for KL2017, were forced to slog before carving out a 21-12, 19-21, 21-16 win over Peter Gabriel Magnaye-Alvin Morada of the Philippines.

Yew Sin-Ee Yi will play either Ricky Cheng-Evan Wong or Kevin Dennerly Minturn-Samuel Ho, both from New Zealand, next.

In the men’s singles second round, independent shuttler Chong Wei Feng saw off Jacob Schueller of New Zealand 21-14, 21-15 to reach the third round, where he is up against top seed Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan.

Soh Wooi Yik, is the other Malaysian to reach the third round of the men’s singles where he faces local shuttler Anthony Joe for a place in the quarterfinals. Fabian Peter