Tokyo: Lee Zii Jia dominated World 139 Bernardo Atilano of Portugal in straight sets 21-9, 21-13 on Wednesday to enter the third round of the 2022 World Championships.
Lee is set to play World No. 23, Zhao Jun Peng of China, on Thursday.
Highlights of Malaysian shuttlers in the 2022 World Championships second round:
(source: Astro Arena)
Zhao, on the other hand, pulled off a surprise when he defeated last year’s World Championship silver medalist, Kidambi Srikanth of India 21-9, 21-17 in 34 minutes.
However, former World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan seemed to have lost his motivation of playing badminton after he slumped to a stunning defeat against World No. 18 H.S Prannoy 17-21, 16-21. Prannoy will set up an all-Indian third-round battle with compatriot and World No. 10 Lakshya Sen next.
Also progressed to the next round were Malaysia’s men’s doubles pairs – World No. 6 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik and World No. 12 Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin when Chia/Soh defeated the World No. 23 opponents from Taiwan, Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han 22-20, 21-18 in 42 minutes, while Goh/Izzuddin outlasted the Irish pair World No. 66 Joshua Magee/Paul Reynolds 21-13, 21-12.
“We have expected this to be a tough match considering that Lu and Yang are not always easy to play,” said Soh. “It was a bit difficult in the first set, we tried to stay calm and find the best tactics in the second game to win the match,” added Soh.
Both Malaysian pairs will, unfortunately, need to clash with each other in the third round on Thursday.
Malaysia’s World No. 11 women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan and World No. 14 mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai also cruised into the third round.
Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan recorded their fourth career win over Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela 21-8, 21-17 in 35 minutes on Wednesday.
“I thought the beginning of the match was good but in the second set, we lost a little bit of focus and consistency. We need to work on that in the next match,” said Tan.
Meanwhile, Goh/Lai defeated England’s World No. 85 Gregory Mairs/Jenny Moore 21-13, 21-18 to set up a third-round encounter with World No. 9 Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue of France for a spot in the quarter-finals.
“Tomorrow we will meet a difficult match. We have won and lost against them. We will be prepared and see how it goes,” said Lai after Wednesday’s match.
