Seoul: Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi gave a spirited fight against the Rio Olympic bronze medalists Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England to secure a 21-14 and 22-20 win in the first round of Korea Open at SK Handball Stadium on Wednesday.
The Indonesia/Malaysia combo of Hendra Setiawan and Tan Boon Heong also got past Chinese qualifiers – Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong with 21-12 and 21-19 in just 25 minutes.
Tan/Setiawan will take on qualifiers Liao Min Chun/Su Cheng Heng of Taiwan next, while Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi will face a stern test in the second round when they will take on No. 2 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia.
Nonetheless, another cross-country pair between Lim Khim Wah of Malaysia and Yoo Yeon Seong of Korea fought back in third set but could not handle Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan, losing the 3-set thriller 22-20, 13-21 and 20-22 in 64 minutes.
In men’s singles, Brice Leverdez of France who defeated Lee Chong Wei in the first round of World Championships 3 weeks ago, pulled off another upset by defeating No. 4 seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan 23-21, 21-14 to set up second round meeting with Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
Former Malaysian national men’s singles player Chong Wei Feng suffered an early exit on Wednesday, losing 21-17, 11-21 and 15-21 to Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark while Soniia Cheah was beaten by Lee Jang Mi of South Korea; losing in straight-sets of 17-21 and 18-21 in the women’s singles first round.
