Two M’sian pairs stun higher-ranked Indonesians

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian pairs -- Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean (women's doubles) and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai (mixed doubles) -- delivered when it mattered most en route to checking into today's semi-finals of the BWF World Tour Finals at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Needing to win their final group matches to advance, the two pairs took down their higher-ranked Indonesian opponents in contrasting fashion yesterday.

While world No 14 Mei Kuan-Meng Yean stunned world No 8 and top seeds Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu 21-13, 21-17 in their final Group B match; world No 12 Soon Huat-Shevon had to slog for three games before prevailing 17-21, 21-13, 21-13 in 57 minutes over world No 8 Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in Group A.

Both the Malaysian pairs booked their tickets for tomorrow's semi-finals by finishing as runners-up in their respective groups, with identical records of two wins and one defeat each.

“Today, we performed well and kept our opponents under pressure. We didn't make any unforced mistakes and took it point-by-point to beat them. It was a long rally game and we were focused.

“We didn't think about winning or losing, we just wanted to pressure them with our smashes and rotation (play),” Mei Kuan was quoted as saying on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) website at www. bwfbadminton.com.

Malaysia's challenge in men's doubles fizzled out after Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and national professional pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi lost their final group matches.

Aaron-Wooi Yik lost to world No 2 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-18, 17-21, 11-21 in Group B while Yew Sin-Ee Yi went down 15-21, 13-21 to England's Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in Group A. - Bernama