Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian women’s doubles pairs of Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei and Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Soong Fie Cho cruised to the second round of the Malaysia Open Super Series at Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil on Wednesday.
Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei were forced to summon every ounce of strength and determination to deny their opponents Putitta Suparajikul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in a 3-set thriller.
The reigning Commonwealth Games gold medalists from Malaysia were trailing for most of game before dropping the first set 17-21 to their Thai opponents.
Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei mange to shrug off the disappointment of the first set and fought back to even the second set with 21-17, and clinched the decider 21-16 following an enthralling contest. They will take on Anggia Shitta Awanda/Inamahadewi Istirani Ni Ketut of Indonesia in the second round.
“We recomposed ourselves and started to find our rhythm in the second set. After we won the second set, we were confident we could win the match,” said Vivian.
Other Malaysian women’s doubles Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Soong Fie Cho needed just 31 minutes to knock off Samantha Barning/Iris Tabeling of Netherlands 21-13, 21-17 to advance to second round. The pair faces Isabel Herttrich/Gerbirgit Michels of Germany on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s challenge in the men’s singles was wiped out in the first round of the Malaysia Open Super Series on Wednesday when Zulfadli Zulkifli, 22, the country’s lone hope in the men’s singles, went down tamely to China’s Tian Houwei, 21-5 and 21-7 in just 33 minutes.
With the absence of Lee Chong Wei, Chinese players such as Lin Dan and Cheng Long and Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen have an excellent opportunity to win their first ever title at this year’s Malaysia Open.
