Daren overcomes Jorgensen to advance into second round

PETALING JAYA: Independent shuttler Liew Daren was a relieved man.

The 31-year-old finally overcame his opening hurdle woes in his fourth attempt when he beat Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen 18-21, 25-23, 21-6 to march into the second round of the Fuzhou China Open yesterday.

World No. 28 Daren was made to slog for 52 minutes for the victory that set up a last-16 clash against world No. 3 Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan today.

Daren has failed to clear the first hurdles in his last three starts at the Taiwan, Denmark and French Opens this year.

He admitted that the struggle to reproduce the form that won him the bronze medal at the World Championships in Nanjing affected his confidence of late.

“I should have won the match in straight games. I led 18-16 in the first and was 20-18 up in the second,” said Daren.

“I could not finish off the game partly because my confidence wasn’t that good. My recent performance had not been up to the par since the Asian Games (in Indonesia in August).

“I was really disappointed with my display at the Asian Games and failed to get back on my feet since.

“So winning today’s (yesterday) first round means a lot to me. Hopefully it’s a progress that I can build on.”

Tien-chen, the Asian Games silver medallist, needed to come back from a game down to tame Lee Dong-keun of South Korea 18-21, 21-16, 21-12 in a 72-minute encounter.