no spot of bother
V Shem-Wee Kiong lose top status but their spirit remain intact
out.
Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, dethroned by Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik as the national No. 1 yesterday, took the demotion in their stride as they rose to defeat China’s world No. 5 Han Chengkai-Zhou Haodong 22-20, 21-15 to reach the second round of the Singapore Open yesterday.
The Rio Olympics silver medallists will face Thailand’s Tinn Isriyanet-Kittisak Namdash in tomorrow’s second round and a win could see them set up a quarter-final encounter against AllEngland champions Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.
It was certainly a great response from the duo following their poor results in the last two outings.
They were eliminated in the first round of the Indian Open and managed last 16 spot at the Malaysian Open last week, causing them to slip a rung to No. 15 in the latest world rankings released yesterday.
Aaron-Wooi Yik climbed to a career-best 14 to end V Shem-Wee Kiong’s reign at the top for more than a year.
And the youngsters celebrated their new stature with a superb win 21-13, 21-18 win over China’s Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan, bouncing back in style from their humbling second round exit at the Malaysian Open.
It also proved that their earlier win against the 2017 world champions at last month’s All-England was no fluke.
However, two other pairs – Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and Arif Abdul Latif-Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub were shown the exit.
Malaysian Masters finalists Yew Sin-Ee Yi went down fighting 19-21, 21-19, 18-21 to China’s Tan Qiang-He Jiting while Arif-Azriyn were beaten 16-21, 13-21 by South Korea’s Kim Gi-jung-Lee Yong-dae.
Two more Malaysian pairs will join in the first round of action when Chooi Kah Ming-Low Juan Shen and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani cleared their qualifying hurdles yesterday.
The men’s singles will see no additional participation from Malaysia after Cheam June Wei and Chong Wei Feng failed to qualify for today’s main draw.
The nation’s challenge will be carried by Liew Daren and Lee Zii Jia, who face Kenta Nishimoto of Japan and South Korea’s Lee Hyun-il respectively.