Muelheim: Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi beat M.R. Arjun/Dhruv Kapila of India 21-13, 20-22, 21-19 in a grueling three-set first-round match at the German Open on Wednesday.
Ong/Teo squandered two match points in the second set when leading 20-18, allowing the Indian pair to reel off 4 consecutive points to force the decider.
The decider was full of energy-sapping tension as no pair had ever led by more than two points. The Malaysian pair was trailing 18-19, before digging themselves out of trouble to win three consecutive points and won the match. Ong/Teo will play Ben Lane/Sean Vendy of England in the second round.
In another men’s doubles match, Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin of Malaysia defeated compatriots Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun 21-13, 21-17 to set up a second-round encounter with Joel Eipe/Daniel Lundgaard from Denmark.
The women’s doubles competition saw World No. 15 women’s doubles pair – Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia found no answers to the relentless attacks from Julie Macpherson/Ciara Torrance of Scotland, bowing out 17-21, 14-21.
In mixed doubles, both Malaysian pairs – Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See and Chen Tang Jie/Peck Yen Wei have crashed out in the first round.
Hoo/Cheah lost to Supak Jomkoh/Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand 18-21, 16-21, while Chen/Peck couldn’t capitalize on a match point, ended up losing to Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith of England 12-21, 21-13, 21-23.
“This was not the first time we’re at the tense moment in the decider,” said Ellis.
“When we’re at that position, we have enough experience to know what to do,” added Ellis.
Meanwhile, Japan’s World No. 4 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino have bowed out of the tournament after losing to compatriots, World No. 17 Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo 15-21, 19-21.
