Hong Kong: World No. 20 men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia scored a major upset win over World No. 5 pair Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the second round of Hong Kong Open on Thursday.
Ong/Teo were trailed by 8-12 in the first set, but they were able to win the next 7 out of 9 points to lead at 16-14 before Alfian/Ardianto regained the lead at 18-17. Nevertheless, Ong/Teo were able to hold their nerves to seize critical points at key moment to win 21-19 in the first set.
Alfian/Ardianto started to give up after the mid-game interval of the second set. The Malaysian pair didn’t face too much trouble to wrap up the game 21-14. They will face World No. 13 Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae of Korea on Friday.
“We played pretty well today. But we also made some minor mistakes that we shouldn’t have made. It was fortunate that we won this game and now we just want to focus on the next game,” said Teo.
Another Malaysian men’s pair, World No. 12 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik who have slowly emerging from their slump after finished runners-up at the 2019 All England early this year, eliminated World No. 9 Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-15, 21-13 in 33 minutes. Chia/Soh have another tough test awaiting them on Friday as they will meet World No. 3 Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen in the quarter-finals. Li/Liu held a 4-0 career meeting records against Chia/Soh.
Also in the mix doubles, Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai defeated Japan’s Kohei Gondo/Ayane Kurihara 21-14, 21-8 in 30 minutes. Goh/Lai will next meet Thailand’s No. 3 seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai. Goh/Lai outlasted the Thai pair in last week’s Fuzhou China Open quarter-finals 21-13, 21-18.
However, in another mixed doubles competition, Goh Liu Ying/Chan Peng Soon of Malaysia couldn’t break their jinx against Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong, losing their fourth career match-up to the Hong Kong pair 20-22, 15-21.
