Jakarta: Malaysia’s men’s singles World No. 5 Lee Zii Jia made a flying start at the 2022 Indonesia Masters as the 24-year-old beat World No. 22 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-16, 21-12 in the opener.
Lee is set to face World No. 27 Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands in the next round.
The World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark also won a 21-14, 21-7 first-round match against World No. 24 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia and comfortably seeing himself through to the second round. Axelsen will play Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei on Thursday.
Other men’s singles first round actions saw the No. 6 seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia lost to Zhao Jun Peng of China 21-10, 14-21, 11-21, while both Daren Liew and Soong Joo Ven from Malaysia also suffered the first-round exit on Wednesday.
In the all-Malaysian men’s doubles first-round match, No. 4 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik have the last laugh against unseeded Tan Kian Meng/Tan Wee Kiong, where the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists walked away with a 21-11, 21-19 victory. Chia/Soh will meet unseeded Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin of Indonesia for a place in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, despite putting up a strong fight, Malaysia’s No. 7 seeds men’s pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi couldn’t get past China’s Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi, going down 15-21, 19-21 in the opener.
