Huelva: While Malaysia’s World No. 75 Cheam June Wei and World No. 108 Ng Tze Yong eased into the 2021 Spain Masters second round after winning in straight sets, the 2017 Asia Junior champion Leong Jun Hao wasted two match points before succumbing to nerves in his first-round clash.
Cheam showed no sign of rust and was in complete control to outlast Jeppe Bruun of Denmark 21-9, 21-11 in 21 minutes on Wednesday. The unseeded Cheam will play No. 8 seed Felix Burestedt of Sweden next.
The reigning Polish Open champion Ng Tze Yong was not afraid of the higher-ranked Raul Must of Estonia in his first-round match, beating the World No. 91 player 21-14, 21-12 to set up a second-round encounter with No. 2 seed Toma Junior Popov of France.
Playing his first competitive match since losing to Ng Tze Yong in the Polish Open semi-finals, Leong Jun Hao was leading 20-18, 21-20 in the decider against Max Weisskirchen of Germany. However, the 21-year-old Malaysian couldn’t finish the job by going down to the German 21-16, 16-21, 21-23.
In addition to Cheam and Ng, Malaysia’s women’s doubles No. 5 seeds Anna Ching Yik Cheong/Yap Cheng Wen will also be playing in the second round. They will take on Annabella Jaeger/Stine Küspert of Germany on Thursday.
