Orleans: World No. 197 Yap Roy King/Chang Yee Jun of Malaysia upset World No. 42 Fabien Delrue/William Villeger of France in straight sets on Thursday to guarantee their spot in the quarter-finals of the 2022 Orleans Masters.
After the score was tied at 8-8 in the first game, Yap/Chang squeaked through a tight beginning to race to a 15-9, 19-15 lead and claimed the game 21-15.
Yap/Chang came into the second game with a real threat but the No. 4 seeds Delrue/Villeger were determined to put up a strong fight against the unseeded Malaysians. At 12-12, the Malaysian duo slowly opened up the gap to eventually beat the French pair 21-15. Yap/Chang will meet the No. 7 seeds from the Netherlands – Ruben Jille/Ties Van Der Lecq on Friday.
Another Malaysian men’s pair – World No. 103 Junaidi Arif/Muhammad Haikal continued to make steady progress at the tournament by overcoming World No. 223 Panjer Aji Siloka Dadiara/Bryan Sidney Elohim of Indonesia 21-18, 21-17. Arif/Haikal will take on Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar of France in the quarter-finals.
Despite being resilient, Malaysia’s Aidil Sholeh lost to Lee Chia Hao of Taiwan 21-16, 18-21, 21-10 in the men’s singles third round.
In addition to entering the men’s doubles quarter-finals, Yap Roy King and his mixed doubles partner Teoh Mei Xing needed to give everything they had to see off Andy Kwek Jun Liang/Jin Yujia of Singapore 21-17, 15-21, 21-18 in the second round. Yap/Teoh are scheduled to play No. 7 seeds Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto of India in the last eight on Friday.
