All eyes on Khim Wah and Yeon-seong

KUALA LUMPUR: The scratch partnership of Lim Khim Wah (pic) and Yoo Yeon-seong is set to spice up the men’s doubles action at the Korean Open and Japan Open.

This is the first time that former international shuttler Khim Wah, 28, will be teaming up with 31-year-old Yeon-seong of South Korea and the spotlight will definitely be on them at the Korean Open in Seoul from Sept 12-17 and the Japan Open in Tokyo from Sept 19-24.

One of Khim Wah’s career highlights, before he left the national team in 2015, was winning the 2014 Malaysian Open men’s doubles title with Goh V Shem.

Yeon-seong used to partner Lee Yong-dae and they reached the final of the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2014. Yeon-seong-Yong-dae won 17 Open titles from 2013 to 2016.

Khim Wah- Yeon- seong will take on Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the first round in Seoul.

They will begin their Japan Open campaign against Kuala Lumpur SEA Games champions Kittinupong Kedren-Dechapol Puavaranukroh of Thailand.

The other different nationality partnership at the two Superseries tournaments is that of Tan Boon Heong-Hendra Setiawan.

Former international Boon Heong and Indonesian Hendra have been playing regularly this year and are ranked 27th in the world.

The regular pairs in the two back-to-back Superseries are top seeds Mathias BoeCarsten Mogensen of Denmark, second seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon- Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia, reigning world champions Zhang Nan-Liu Cheng of China and Takeshi Kamura-Keigo Sonoda of Japan.

Malaysia have entered world No. 7 V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong but their participation is still uncertain as the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have yet to decide whether to split them up.