Trio storm into second round, Wee Wern goes down fighting

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian trio Ng Eain Yow, Aifa Azman and Rachel Arnold bounced back from their Asian Team setback in style with emphatic wins at the Singapore Open on a day former world No. 5 Low Wee Wern made an emotional comeback.

World No. 23 Eain Yow avenged his Asian team defeat to India’s world No. 16 Saurav Ghosal with a hard-fought 12-14, 11-4, 9-11, 14-12, 11-1 win to reach the second round.

Eain Yow had lost to Saurav in a match that saw India beating Malaysia 2-1 in the semi-finals and eventually beating Kuwait 2-0 to secure the title in Cheongjun two weeks ago.

Eain Yow will have a mountain to climb when he takes on world No. 2 Paul Coll of New Zealand in the second round today.

“I was a little bit disappointed with myself in the first game, I was in a position to win it. We played a couple of weeks ago at the Asian meet, and something similar happened in the first game,” said Eain Yow.

“In the third and fourth games, I lost a little bit of focus but I just kept fighting and just kept running. I’m going to put on a good show against Paul.”

Aifa and Rachel were part of the Malaysian team that lost 1-2 to Hong Kong in the Asian Team final.

Aifa, ranked No. 24, overcame 20th ranked Olivia Clyne of the United States 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 13-15, 11-2 to book a second round clash against world No. 6 Nour El Tayeb of Egypt.

Rachel secured her second success over world No. 13 Tesni Evans, having beaten the Welshwoman at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, as she came from one game down to win 9-11, 11-3, 13-11, 11-8.

She will play Egyptian world No. 7 Rowan Elaraby next.

Meanwhile, Wee Wern came back from a right knee surgery after 13 months and took a game off world No. 22 Nadine Shahin of Egypt before going down 10-12, 11-8, 13-11, 11-7 in 43 minutes.