Jakarta: World No. 4 Lee Zii Jia from Malaysia was hot off his 2023 Indonesia Masters opener on Wednesday by seeing off World No. 35 Lin Chun-Yi of Taiwan 21-18, 21-17 to set up a second-round battle with World No. 18 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong in the second round.
Another Malaysian men’s singles shuttler also made the second round when he blew past Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-7, 21-14 to meet Lakshya Sen of India next. Sen eliminated Kodai Naraoka of Japan 21-12, 21-11 in the first round.
Earlier Wednesday, former World No. 1 Kento Momota who just lost his first-round match to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the first round of the India Open last week, suffered his second consecutive first-round exit after going down to Shi Yuqi of China 18-21, 7-21.
In other men’s singles action, the World No. 5 Chou Tien Chen who lost to Jonatan Christie in the quarter-finals of the India Open last week, continued to struggle when he went down to Brian Yang of Canada 9-21, 14-21. Yang will play Kenta Nishimoto for a place in the quarter-finals.
Malaysia’s men’s doubles reigning World Champions Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik swept to a 21-14, 21-9 win over compatriots Boon Xin Yuan/Wong Tien Ci 21-14, 21-9 are going to play Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang whom they lost to in the India Open final last Sunday in the Indonesia Masters second round.
Tan Kian Meng/Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia also cruised into the men’s doubles second round. They will take on Keiichiro Matsui/Yoshinori Takeuchi in the second round.
In addition to men’s doubles, Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing also made the round of 16 and will take on Jafar Hidayatullah/Aisyah Salsabila Putri Pranata of Indonesia in the mixed doubles event.
Meanwhile, two Malaysian women’s doubles pairs – Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan and Vivian Hoo/Lim Chiew Sien will square off against each other for a quarter-final berth.
