Taipei: The World No. 139, Yeoh Seng Zoe, sprung the biggest surprise of the day on Thursday by ousting the sixth seed from Japan, Kanta Tsuneyama, and securing a spot in the 2023 Taipei Open quarter-finals.
Highlights of Yeoh Seng Zoe vs. Kanta Tsuneyama in the 2023 Taipei Open second round:
In what could be his final tournament before hanging up his racket, Yeoh showed impressive net and attacking skills to defeat Tsuneyama 21-19, 21-15. Tsuneyama, the 2021 French Open champion, committed a lot of errors when many of his smashes toward Yeoh’s sideline were found out of bounds.
Yeoh will now face the Taiwanese player Su Li Yang in the quarter-finals.
Unfortunately, luck was not on the side of Malaysia’s other men’s singles players. Cheam June Wei was eliminated in the second round after a defeat to Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long 14-21, 13-21, while Leong Jun Hao lost to Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia 18-21, 21-14, 16-21.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 19 mixed pair Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei successfully advanced to the quarter-finals after a convincing victory over the Thai duo and World No. 39 Ruttanapak Oupthong/Jhenicha Sudjaiprapat 21-13, 21-13.
As the fourth seed in the tournament, they will now face the Taiwanese mixed doubles pair, World No. 30 Yang Po-Hsuan/Hu Ling Fang in the quarter-finals.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles team, Hoo Pang Ron/Teoh Mei Xing, also secured a place in the top eight by triumphing over the South Korean pair Kim Young Hyuk/Lee Yu Lim 19-21, 21-16, 21-14. They will next face the local pair Ye Hong Wei/Lee Chia Hsin.
