Back-up men’s pairs out to strut their stuff in Spain

PETALING JAYA: Back-up men’s pairs – Tee Kai Wun-Man Wei Chong and Chang Yee JunChia Wei Jie – will be out to extend their impressive starts at the Spain Masters from May 18-23.

The newly-formed partnerships dazzled with a 1-2 finish at the sixth-tier Polish Open in March and will want to impress head coach Flandi Limpele further when they head to Huelva for the fourth-tier tournament.

Kai Wun-Wei Chong have a relatively easier opening round draw than their compatriots, as they take on unheralded Algerians Mohamed Abderrahime-Adel Hamek in the first round.

Yee Jun-Wei Jie are drawn against the fourth seeds Popov brothers – Christo and Toma Junior. If they can upset the world No. 45 French pair, then an all-Malaysian last 16 clash is on the cards.

Waiting in the quarter-finals will most likely be Denmark’s world No. 56 Daniel Lundgaard-Mathias Thyrri, opponents the Malaysians are capable of overcoming.

Should one pair make it to the last four, they will most probably cross paths with top seeds Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.

The Danish world No. 11 combination will be hard to beat going by their recent form.

Apart from winning the Swiss Open, they also reached the semi-finals of the All-England in March and last week’s European Championships.

Kai Wun-Wei Chong have a good chance of establishing themselves as the No. 4 pair in the national team if they can outperform Yee Jun-Wei Jie again.

The current top three in the national set-up are Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Nur Izzuddin Rumsani-Goh Sze Fei and Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong.

Meanwhile, Lwi Sheng Hao-Loo Bing Kung and Yap Roy King-Nurfirdaus Azman have been entered for the seventh-tier Slovenian International Series (May 19-22) and Austrian Open (May 27-30).