Basel: Malaysia’s independent mixed doubles pair, World No. 5 Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying prevailed in the first round of World Championships, but another Malaysian pair, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai has crashed out in the opener.
The World No. 5 Chan/Goh had to dig deep to overcome Joshua Hurlburt-Yu/Josephine Wu of Canada 21-18, 19-21, 21-16 to move on to the second round. They will next take on Japanese pair Takuro Hoki/Wakana Nagahara who defeated Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai on Tuesday.
In men’s singles, after dropping the opening set, Lee Zii Jia capitalized on his attack to calmly closed out the second and third, beating China’s Lu Guangzu 12-21, 21-14, 21-15 in 63 minutes. He will take on Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto on Thursday.
Even though we know five-time world champion Lin Dan of China has been struggling since mid-2018, it’s a completely different feeling when we saw him bid farewell to what could be his last World Championships on Tuesday. Lin, fought hard against India’s HS Prannoy, but was clearly ran out of gas in the decider, going down to the Indian player 11-21, 21-13, 7-21.
“Lin is a tough player. I know he is good in slow conditions, that’s why I play with a faster pace and focus on scoring each point in the decider,” said Prannoy.
The Indian player will face World No. 1 Kento Momota in the third round.
In women’s competition, Soniia Cheah of Malaysia produced a brilliant display to beat Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong 21-8, 21-18, setting up the second round encounter with Michelle Li of Canada.
Meanwhile, the unseeded Yeo Jia Min of Singapore scored the biggest upset of the day by defeating top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-14, 21-18. Yeo will play Thi Trang Vu of Vietnam on Thursday.
After Yamaguchi’s early exit, Japan’s national head coach Park Joo-bong revealed that Yamaguchi has injured her back during the Japan Open that took place in Tokyo at the end of July.
“She has received some treatments after the Japan Open. She has been doing her own rehabilitation and didn’t train with the team after we arrived in Basel,” said Park.
