Hong Kong: Malaysia’s World No. 6 mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying have cruised into Hong Kong Open second round as they defeated Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia 21-16, 21-16 in the first round match that took place on Tuesday.
Chan/Goh will face local shuttlers and World No. 13 Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet on Thursday. Although Chan/Goh’s world ranking was higher than Tang/Tse, they were actually 1-3 down in their career head to head meeting against the Hong Kong pair.
After advancing to the semi-finals of the Fuzhou China Open last week, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik continued to show consistent performance when they booked tickets to the men’s doubles second round of the Hong Kong Open by beating Indonesia’s Ricky Karandasuwardi/Angga Pratama 21-13, 21-14 in the first round.
The World No. 12 pair only needed 22-minute to confirm the second round meeting with Denmark’s Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
Also in the second round were World No. 20 Teo Ee Yi/Ong Yew Sin who shrugged off the challenge from Kang Min Hyuk/Kim Jae Hwan of Korea by winning 17-21, 25-23, 21-16.
Teo/Ong will meet No. 5 seeds Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia next.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Rio Olympic silver medalist Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong suffered their 10th first round exit of the season after they were shocked by Russian pair Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov 12-21, 15-21 in the first round in 31 minutes.