Kuala Lumpur: After winning the first game against World No. 47 Koki Watanabe of Japan 21-6 in the Taipei Open second-round match, the World No. 59 Soong Joo Ven of Malaysia showed his resilience to come back from 16-20 in the second game to ultimately beat Watanabe 25-23 to move into the quarter-finals.
Soong will play Worl No. 40 Parupalli Kashyap of India in the next round.
In mixed doubles, the World No. 24 Hoo Pang Ron/Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia produced a commendable performance when they eliminated the No. 3 seeds, Lee Jhe Huei/Hsu Ya Ching of Taiwan 21-23, 23-21, 21-14 to enter the quarter-finals.
“We are very happy when we were able to beat the Taiwanese pair considering that they are the No. 3 seeds,” said Toh.
“However, we can’t be too happy because we need to stay focused and to get ready for the next match,” added Toh.
Hoo/Toh are set to fight Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto of India for a place in the semi-finals.
“We have never met them before. So, we’ll discuss with the coach and will fight all the way,” continue Toh.
Meanwhile, women’s singles World No. 60 Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia was untroubled by World No. 152 Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi of Indonesia on Thursday, easing past the Indonesian 21-11, 21-17 to next meet World No. 35 Saena Kawakami of Japan.
However, another women’s singles player from Malaysia, Eoon Xi Quan suffered a second-round exit when she lost to Lauren Lam of the USA.
Eoon fought for 3 games before conceding 21-18, 15-21, 15-21.
