Vivian Hoo-Woon only Malaysians left standing in Swiss Open

KUALA LUMPUR: The top national women’s doubles pair of Vivian Hoo Kah Mun/Woon Khe Wei are the only Malaysian players left standing at the 2017 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton Tournament, late Wednesday (Thursday in Malaysia).

The third seeded pair defeated Lin Xiao Min/ Wu Fang Chien of Taiwan; winning in straightsets 21-18, 21-14 in the opening round of the tournament held at St Jakobshalle Indoor Arena, according to Badminton World Federation ( BWF) website;www. bwfbadminton.org.

Hoo/ Woon are slated to meet another Taiwanese pair of Chiang Kai Hsin/ Hung Shih Han in the second round later Thursday after the latter defeated the scratch pair of Khairunnisa Imma Muthiah/ Jenjira Stadelmann of Indonesia/ Netherlands 21-16, 21-17 in another first round tie. The country’s challenge in three other events -- men’s singles and doubles and also women’s singles -- fizzled out after the Malaysians were defeated. National men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi lost 26-28 and 1821 to the 2017 All-England runnerup Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China while former national men’s singles player Muhammad Hafiz Hashim who teamed up with Mohd Razif Abdul Latif lost 8-21, 9-21 to the sixth seeds Mathias Christiansen/ David Daugaard of Denmark in the opening round match.

Malaysia’s professional player Tan Boon Heong who teamed up with former Olympics champion Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia put up a stiff fight against third seeded Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark before losing 13-21, 21-15 and 14-21 in the opening round. Goh Chiap Chin and Yap Rui Chen were eliminated from the US$120,000 (RM532, 528) tournament on Tuesday after losing in the opening round of the men’s and women’s singles, respectively. — Bernama