Lucknow: Malaysian shuttlers Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, Zulfadli Zulkiffli, Chong Wei Feng, and Goh Giap Chin made it through on day one of the main draw of Syed Modi International Badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin beat Indian shuttler R. M. V. Gurusaidutt in the first round before seeing off Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-15, 24-22 in the second round. Iskandar will play top seed Kidambi Srikanth who he defeated at the semi-finals of last week’s Malaysia Masters on Thursday.
Zulfadli Zulkiffli who squandered a big lead and lost to Ajay Jayaram at last week’s Malaysia Masters, pulled off a huge upset by taming No. 3 seed Son Wan Ho 21-19, 21-13 to play compatriot Goh Giap Chin in round 3.
In his fighting spirit, Goh reeled off 5 consecutive points while trailing 17-20 in the decider to beat Thomas Rouxel of France 15-21, 21-9, 22-20 in first round, and survived a tough 3-set thriller in the second round match over Aditya Joshi of India.
Chong Wei Feng who was criticized for his lackluster and sluggish performances, put aside the words of his critics to sweep past No. 14 seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 18-21, 26-24, 21-19 to set up clash with Chinese youngster Shi Yuqi for a quarter-final berth.
In women’s singles, Goh Jin Wei was the sole Malaysian left in the tournament when she overcame Fitriani of Indonesia in the first round to set up a second round meet with No. 6 seed Yui Hashimoto of Japan on Thursday.
Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong worked hard to narrow the gap with the No. 3 men’s pair Mads Conrad-Petersenden/Mads Pieler Kolding in the decider, catching up from 10-15 to 14-15, but the unwavering Denmark pair proved too strong as they won the match 21-9, 17-21, 21-16. Another Malaysian men’s pair Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong managed to power their way into the men’s doubles second round and will take on former World Champions Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol in the second round.
Top Indian shuttlers such as Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap in men’s singles and P. V Sindhu in women’s singles, advanced to the third round of men’s singles and second round of women’s singles repsectively after easy victories on Wednesday.
