Vantaa: Malaysia’s World No. 27 mixed doubles pair, Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See, beat World No. 7, Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith 21-19, 21-18 in 48 minutes to inspire the Malaysian team to beat England 3-2 in the first Group D tie at the 2021 Sudirman Cup on Monday.
Lee Zii Jia then carried the momentum from Hoo/Cheah into the men’s singles match where the World No. 8 Lee easily defeated World No. 202 Johnnie Torjussen 21-4, 21-15 in 28 minutes.
The World No. 8 men’s doubles, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik was facing a tough challenge from England’s World No. 19 Ben Lane/Sean Vendy as the England pair was able to come back from 3-9, 8-12 down to tie the first game at 14-14 before leading at 20-18. Chia/Soh held their nerves to force a deuce and eventually took the first game 22-20 after the England pair committed two consecutive uncharacteristic errors.
Despite losing the first game, the England pair kept up their continual attack in the second set and was quick to lead at 8-6. Chia/Soh calmly staying in the game and managed to reverse the lead at 14-12. Chia was able to score the match point after Sean Vendy couldn’t return the powerful smash from the Malaysian. The 22-20, 21-18 victory from Chia/Soh also gave Malaysia the third point needed to seal the victory in the best of 5 formats.
In the 4th match, Malaysia’s World No. 53 women’s singles player, Selvaduray Kisona, for some reason was no match for England’s World No. 176 Abigail Hoden, going down to Hoden 16-21, 20-22.
Even though Malaysia’s World No. 19 women’s doubles pair, Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, was putting up a spirited fight against England’s World No. 14. Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith, the Malaysian pair ended up losing 18-21, 21-17, 10-21.
Below are day two results for the 2021 Sudirman Cup:
Sudirman Cup – Group A, China vs. India 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group D, Malaysia vs. England 3-2
Sudirman Cup – Group D, Japan vs. Egypt 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group A, Thailand vs. Finland 5-0
Sudirman Cup – Group C, Denmark vs. Russia 4-1
Sudirman Cup – Group C, Indonesia vs. Canada 3-2
