Fuzhou: Former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia secured the chance of a revenge over Brice Leverdez of France in the China Open second round after beating his Taiwanese opponent Hsu Jen-hao in straight sets, 21-5, 21-7 on Wednesday.
The Malaysian seventh seed came through a relatively easy first round match at the Haixia Olympic Sports Center, will get a shot at revenge versus Leverdez who sent Lee Chong Wei crashing out of the first round of BWF World Championships on August 22, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Brice Leverdez has been known to have strong showings usually in early rounds of tournament, reached the second round of China Open as he brushed aside India’s Sourabh Verma 21-14, 15-21, 21-11 in 54 minutes.
The first round of China Open saw mixed results for the Malaysian camp. Women’s doubles pairs Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei outlasted Chiang Kai Hsin-Hung Shih Han of Taiwan 15-21, 21-19, 21-11 while Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean overcame Xiao Min Lin-Wu Fang Chien also from Taiwan 21-6, 17-21, 21-9.
Hoo/Woon will take on No. 6 seeds Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto of Japan on Thursday, while Chow/Lee will meet No. 5 seeds Chang Ye Na/Jung Kyung Eun in the second round.
Meanwhile, three Malaysian mixed doubles pairs including No. 8 seeds Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, Chan Peng Soon/Cheah Yee See were sent packing in the first round.
In men’s doubles, unseeded Malaysian pair Goh V Shem/Teo Ee Yi pushed No. 4 seeds Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen to the limit before going down 22-24, 21-18, 18-21 in a 67 minutes battle. On the other hand, Ong Yew Sin/Tan Wee Kiong made an impressive run to celebrate their first round victory over Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen/David Daugaard 21-9, 21-10. Ong/Tan will play reigning world champions and No. 5 seeds Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan on Thursday.
