Korea: Day one of Asian Badminton Championship (ABC) started with big upsets and tough losses. Big-name players such as top seed Boonsak Ponsana (Thailand), 
third seed Nguyen Tien Minh (Vietnam), fourth seed Kento Momota (Japan), fifth seed Hu Yun (Hong Kong) and eighth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (Thailand) all crashed out in the first round.
Malaysia’s new men’s doubles Low Juan Shen-Nelson Heg barely survived a tough match at Asian Badminton Championship (ABC) after a disastrous day for Malaysia squad in Gimcheon, South Korea.
The world No. 213 pair, Juan Shen-Nelson Heg, who fought-back into the match to force a rubber game to defeat world No. 45, India’s Manu Attri-B. Sumeeth Reddy 16-21, 21-13, 22-20. In addition to this fantastic win, Juan Shen-Nelson were gifted a free passage into the quarter-finals, when the top seed Tsai Chia-hsin-Lee Sheng-mu of Taiwan – withdrew at the 11th hour.
The pair will now face either China’s Shi Longfei-Chen Zhuofu or Vietnam’s Duong Bao Duc-Nguyen Hoang Nam in the last eight.
“It was a difficult match today but we’re very happy that we didn’t give up, this is the biggest tournament we are competing in so far,” said Juan Shen.
“We were in the semi-finals of the Vietnam International Challenge last month, and considering this is our third tournament together, this win is a good improvement.”
“My partnership with Nelson is getting better, but we still have a lot of room for improvement. We still need to work on our understanding and rotation during matches.” added Juan Shen.
Another men’s doubles world No. 61 Teo Ee Yi-Chooi Kah Ming who have only be playing together since last September dumped Taiwan’s Liang Jui-wei-Liao Kuan-hao, also in three sets, 19-21, 21-17, and 22-20. They will meet South Korea’s Shin Baek-cheol-Yoo Yeon-seong in the second round.
In the men’s singles, Liew Daren’s slump continued, as he was well beaten by South Korea’s Lee Dong-keun, losing 22-24, 13-21. Goh Soon Huat and Chong Yee Han fared no better, losing to India’s P. Kashyap and Japan’s Sho Sasaki in straight games respectively.
The home favourite Son Wan-ho sailed through first round after beating Thailand’s Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-19, 21-13.
