Paris: Reigning Commonwealth men’s doubles champion Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong survived a massive scare at the French Open on Thursday, scrambling to a 22-20,8-21,22-20 second-round victory over Jacco Arends-Jelle Maas of Netherlands.
Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong were back at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin stadium less than 24 hours after defeated Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan of China in the first round. The Malaysian duo fought back from the brink of elimination trailing 19-20 in the decider to reel off three straight points to get them back into the third round of French Open.
In women’s doubles, top seed Bao Yixin-Tang Jinhua of China failed to qualify for the quarter-finals after losing to Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito of Japan in three sets. Bao-Tang won the first set, but failed to keep their momentum in the second and the third. Bao and Tang couldn’t not grasp the opportunity to finish off the game when they were sitting at 20-19 in the decider. Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito were able to save one match point to eventually winning 16-21, 21-7, 23-21.
Men’s singles fourth seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia were stretched by Chen Yuekun of China before he eventually came through a tense three set match to take his place in the last 16 by defeating his Chinese opponent 15-21 21-16 21-15. Meanwhile, fifth seed Wang Zhengming was pushed to his very limit, battled for three grueling, momentum-shifting sets to overcome Marc Zwiebler of Germany 21-19 14-21 21-19 in 67 minutes. Parupalli Kashyap of India also advanced to the men’s singles third round after powered through Tian Houwei of China 21-19 21-18 in 45 minutes.
The three top women’s singles player from China Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, and Wang Yihan together with Saina Nehwal of India managed to come out of their second round matches unscratched to cruise to the quarter-finals of the French Open. Li Xuerui will take on Chloe Magee of Ireland on Friday, Saina Nehwal will clash with Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan will face Zhang Beiwen of U.S.A. in the quarter-finals.
