Cuttack: The World No. 288 men’s doubles pair – Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn/Lim Khim Wah successfully captured the first-ever international title of their partnership at the Odisha Open on Sunday.
Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn who won the men’s doubles gold of the 2018 World University Championships (with Low Juan Shen) and Lim Khim Wah – the 2014 Malaysia Open champion (with Goh V Shem), were the only Malaysian representatives who advanced to the Odisha Open finals.
Lim who quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in 2015 and Azriyn who left BAM in 2018, got off to a strong start and were leading 14-11, 16-13 in the first set. However, after 17-17, several loose lifts from the Malaysian pair allowed the World No. 198 Indian pair – Ravikrishna PS/Sankar Prasad Udayakumar to kill the shuttlecock easily. The Indian pair took the first game 21-18 after Udayakumar scored the game point through a quick drop shot at the net.
The Malaysians took advantage of a lot of out-of-bound errors from the Indian pair to win the second game 21-14. Lim/Azriyn managed to dictate the rhythm in the decider by mostly playing the flat game and a service error from Udayakumar gave Lim/Azriyn their first international title playing as a pair with the final score of 21-16.
Video of Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn/Lim Khim Wah vs. Ravikrishna PS/Sankar Prasad Udayakumar in the 2022 Odisha Open Men’s Doubles Final:
Lim/Azriyn started their three back-to-back tournaments in India with the first-round defeat at the Indian Open and a second-round loss in the Syed Modi India International.
Before their departure to India, Lim told Malaysian media that their targets this year would be trying to break into World’s top 40 rankings and try to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo this August.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 279 men’s doubles pair – Chia Weijie/Low Hang Yee also clinched their first-ever international title by defeating World No. 104 Emil Lauritzen/Mads Vestergaard of Denmark in the 2022 Ukraine Open final on Sunday.
After the first two sets were split, both pairs had their chances with deuces in a pulsating third set. At 22-21 in the decider, Chia Weijie moved fast to the net for a drop shot, and Emil Lauritzen was diving to save the shot but his return was too strong and the shuttlecock went out of bound.
Chia/Low immediately dropped to their knees to celebrate the victory after the out-of-bound shot from Lauritzen. The final score was 19-21, 22-20, 23-21.
Match Point Video of Chia Weijie/Low Hang Yee vs. Emil Lauritzen/Mads Vestergaard In the Ukraine Open Men’s Doubles Final:
