A victory to treasure

Kian Meng-Pei Jing first Malaysian pair to beat Tontowi-Lilyana in five years

Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing have done something no other Malaysian pairs have been able to do in the last five years – beat Indonesia’s mixed doubles superstars Tontowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir.

Kian Meng-Pei Jing pulled off a spectacular 21-17, 21-16 win over the Olympic champions TontowiLilyana in the opening round of the Australian Open in Sydney yesterday.

Just a week ago, the Malaysians lost to the former world No. 1 pair in the quarter-finals of the Indonesian Open in what was only their first meeting in an international tournament.

The only other Malaysian pair to have beaten Tontowi-Lilyana are Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying. Even then, they have beaten the Indonesians just once in 10 meetings – at the 2012 China Open.

World No. 9 Kian Meng-Pei Jing will take on Japan’s Yugo Kobayashi-Misaki Matsutomo for a place in the quarter-finals today.

Pei Jing was thrilled after exacting revenge over the Indonesians.

“They could’ve been tired after fighting so hard to win the Indonesian Open title on Sunday. But I’m glad we took our chances well,” said Pei Jing.

“It’s one of our most memorable wins. We hope to maintain this good run. We lost to Kobayashi-Matsutomo in the Hong Kong Open last year. Hopefully, we can pull off another sweet revenge,” said Pei Jing.

Said Kian Meng: “It wasn’t easy beating Tontowi-Lilyana even when they were not at their best. Pei Jing and I played well from start to end.”

“This win has given us the motivation to achieve more good results. We really needed a big win to keep us going.”

It was also a good day for Malaysia when Chan Peng SoonCheah Yee See cleared their opening round with a 14-21, 21-19, 21-14 win over Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Sayaka Hirota in another mixed doubles match.

They will meet Indonesia’s Hendra Tandjaya-Sekartaji Putri next.

Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Soniia Cheah also did well to keep the national flag flying in men and women’s singles yesterday.

Zulfadli defeated Takuma Ueda of Japan 21-18, 21-19 to set up a meeting against Lee Hyun-il of South Korea while world No. 28 Soniia played one of her best matches this season to blow away world No. 13 Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong 21-14, 21-15.

She will take on Saina Nehwal of India next.

There was more misery, however, for Olympic silver medallists Tan Wee Kiong-Goh V Shem.

They suffered another early-round blow after losing 21-16, 13-21, 13-21 to Takuto Inoue-Yuki Kaneko of Japan in the first round.