Kian Meng-Pei Jing hope to make amends at Indian Open

PETALING JAYA: Mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing are aiming to go far in the Indian Open after failing to impress in the last two weeks.

The world No. 11 pair could not live up to their rankings as they were twice upstaged by teammates and world No. 13 Goh Soon HuatShevon Lai Jemie in the quarter-finals of the recent Malaysian Masters and Indonesian Masters.

And Kian Meng-Pei Jing believed both defeats have only strengthened their resolve to improve. The pair certainly showed no ill effects as they powered into the second round of the Indian Open in New Delhi yesterday.

The third seeds were simply too strong for homesters Saurabh Sharma-Anoushka Parikh as they won 21-13, 21-14.

They meet another Indian pair S. Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa next.

“I don’t think our confidence is affected too much. Soon Huat-Shevon are really in good form and we don’t feel too bad losing to them.

“Besides, I believe our form is slowly picking up again. We were just trying to focus on ourselves and regain our own momentum.

“I think it showed in our game today. Maybe our opponents were not so strong but we did well enough and we are ready for a tougher match tomorrow,” said Pei Jing.

Fourth seeds Soon Huat-Shevon also kept their fine run going after breezing past Danes Anders Skaarup Rasmussen-Line Kjaersfeldt 21-14, 21-16.

The pair face qualifiers Shivam SharmaPoorvisha Ram of India in the second round.

In the men’s singles, qualifiers Liew Daren and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin both did well to reach the second round.

Former national shuttler Daren, who was a semi-finalist at the Thailand Masters and Malaysian Masters, overcame Israel’s Misha Zilberman 21-18, 16-21, 23-21.

Iskandar downed Denmark’s Emil Holst 21-15, 21-17 to set up a second round clash with world No. 3 and home favourite K. Srikanth.