Basel: After the shock exit of women’s singles No. 1 seed Akane Yamaguchi on Tuesday, big upsets continued in the World Championships second round when Indonesia’s World No. 1 men’s doubles pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo suffered a stunning defeat to World No. 23 Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae of Korea on Wednesday.
The Indonesian pair was looking sharp to pick up an easy victory against the Korean pair at Saint Jakobshalle when they won the first set 21-16.
However, Choi/Seo managed to catch up with the fast game style from Gideon/Sukamuljo in the second set, together with some unforced errors from the World No. 1 pair, Choi/Seo easily claimed the second set 21-14.
The Korean pair was very tactical and played tight defense in the decider. Even though Gideon/Sukamuljo was on the verge of victory when they were leading at 20-19, the Indonesians failed to lock in important points at the crucial moment by losing to the Korean pair 21-23.
“We never played them, but we know they are the top pair in the world. Fortunately, we were able to keep our composure very well at the end of the third set,” said Choi after the match.
Malaysia’s World No. 10 men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik was also being eliminated in the second round as they lost to World No. 21 Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko 21-14, 17-21, 18-21.
Meanwhile, in an-all Malaysian men’s doubles second round battle, World No. 14 Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong got the better of Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi 21-13, 21-18 to set up a third round meeting with World No. 7 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing (mixed doubles), Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen (women’s doubles), Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean (women’s doubles) were other Malaysian pairs that made the third round. Tan/Lai will face Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai, Hoo/Yap will battle Du Yue/Li Yin Hui of China and Chow/Lee will play Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi of Japan on Thursday.
Nevertheless, Daren Liew (men’s singles) and Soniia Cheah (women’s singles) couldn’t survive the second round as they lost to their respective opponents on Wednesday.
