Iskandar fails to qualify for main draw of Korean Open

PETALING JAYA: National men’s singles player Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin’s disappointing run continues after he failed to qualify for the main draw of the Korean Open.

The 27-year-old slumped to a 20-22, 17-21 loss to China’s Zhou Zeqi in the second qualifying round at the SK Handball Stadium in Seoul yesterday.

A win would have promoted Iskandar to the first round of the tournament proper where he could face compatriot Liew Daren.

Earlier, Iskandar laboured for nearly an hour before taming Ha Young-woong 21-15, 10-21, 21-16.

Iskandar also failed to impress at the Indonesian Masters last week, losing as early as the second round.

Iskandar is certainly not doing himself any

favours with the two poor outings as he has just returned from a three-month ban for smoking in a hotel room during the Thomas Cup Finals in Bangkok in May.

Back-up men’s doubles pair Goh Sze FeiNur Izzuddin Rumsani also packed their bags early.

The world No. 59 went down 21-18, 11-21, 18-21 in the one-round qualifier to world No. 98 Taiwanese Chang Ko-chi-Lu Chia-pin.

Mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei provided the only bright spark of the day.

The up-and-coming duo beat Taiwan’s Chang Ko-chi-Cheng Chi-ya 17-21, 21-14, 21-17 to set up a second-round clash with second seeds Mathias Christiansen- Christinna Pedersen of Denmark tomorrow.

It will be Tang Jie-Yen Wei’s first test against world top 10 opponents since they were paired in January. Christiansen-Pedersen are the world No. 5.

Tang Jie-Yen Wei have made decent progress of late by reaching the semi-finals of the Russian Open and Spanish Masters to climb to No. 36 in the world rankings.