Sweet revenge
Kian Meng-Pei Jing turn on the heat in opener
PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing displayed one of their best performance in recent times to reach the second round of the China Open in Changzhou.
The world No. 24 turned the tables on Niclas Nohr-Sara Thygesen of Denmark 22-20, 21-18 in a 40-minute first round match – just two months after receiving flak for losing to the same pair at the German Open.
They will take on fourth seeds Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong next and are hoping to reach their first-ever quarter-final this season in a major Open tournament.
Kian Meng said it was a morale-boosting win as the duo had been struggling to find their footing this year.
“It’s good to avenge our defeat to them. It’s an important win as Pei Jing and I needed an upset win to snap out of our slump. We’re slowly regaining our confidence,” said Kian Meng.
“We were leading 17-9 in the second game but we allowed them to sneak back into the game.
“Luckily we won, but we’ve got to be more alert.
“I think this is one of our best matches this season and hopefully, we can keep this rhythm going. It’ll be tough against the Hong Kong pair. All we want to do is to give another good account of ourselves,” he added.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing are the only Malaysian mixed doubles pair left in the tournament following the defeats of Chan Peng SoonGoh Liu Ying and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie in the first round yesterday.
It was unfortunate for Peng Soon-Liu Ying to face reigning Japan Open champions Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong of China early in the round but they did give the world No. 1 pair a run for their money before losing 18-21, 17-21.
They also lost to them in the Japan Open semi-finals in Tokyo last week.
Singapore Open champions Soon HuatShevon also fought valiantly but was not enough to beat Ricky Karandasuwardi-
Debby Susanto and went down 15-21, 21-19, 16-21 in 54 minutes.
Meanwhile, national No. 1 Goh V ShemTan Wee Kiong joined Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi in the men’s doubles second round after defeating Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India 21-19, 22-20 yesterday.
V Shem-Wee Kiong face Ricky-Angga Pratama today while Yew Sin-Ee Yi meet second seeds Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen of China for a place in the quarter-finals.