Birmingham: The All England was delayed by five hours on Wednesday as several players were tested positive on COVID-19. However, after retests, all results came back negative. The World No. 7 mixed doubles pair of Malaysia, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying have to play both their first and second-round matches on Thursday after their schedule was changed due to the delay.
Chan/Goh had to dig deep in their first match, needed 63 minutes to see off Mathias Thyrri/Mai Surrow of Denmark 21-23, 21-15, 21-12. The third-seeded Malaysian pair was dominant in the second match, easing past Nipitphon Phuangphuapet/Benyapa Aimsaard of Thailand 21-9, 21-8 in 23 minutes to set up a quarter-final meet with seventh-seeded Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue of France.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, sixth-seeded Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, overcoming Steven Stallwood/Annie Lado of England 21-15, 21-15 to face second-seeded Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan on Friday.
Nevertheless, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia failed to advance after going down to Sam Magee/Chloe Magee of Ireland 19-21, 16-21.
Smashing the shuttlecocks well throughout and playing aggressively, the World No. 22 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan dismantled Jessica Hopton/Jenny Moore of England 21-18, 21-7 to take on No. 5 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan next.
In men’s singles, No. 6 seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia roared past Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark 21-12, 21-13 to set up a quarter-final clash with No. 1 seed, Kento Momota.
There’s no Malaysian men’s doubles pair able to advance to the last eight after Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong and Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi were knocked out in the second round on Thursday.
