Almere: Malaysia’s World No. 92 Cheam June Wei was off to a good at on Tuesday as he eased into the Dutch Open second with 21-13, 21-10 win over Luxembourg’s Robert Mann in just 25 minutes.
Cheam will play qualifier Milan Dratva of Slovakia in the second round.
Another Malaysian shuttler, Soong Joo Ven who had reached the final of 2018 Hyderabad Open in September, staved off a spirited challenge from Artem Pochtarov of Ukraine 18-21, 21-12, 21-15 in 63 minutes to set up a second round clash with Luka Wraber of Austria.
However, two other young Malaysian men’s singles players Yeoh Seng Zoe and Satheishtharan Ramachandran couldn’t cross the opening hurdles, losing their qualifying matches respectively to Dimitar Yanakiev of Bulgaria and B. R. Sankeerth of Canada.
Former Malaysian national player Lim Khim Wah who has teamed up with India’s Tarun Kona in the men’s doubles category, lost the first game but bounced back to overcome Lars Kros/Timo Stoffelen of Netherlands 21-23, 21-12, 21-7 in 33 minutes. Lim/Kona will square off against No. 7 seeds Arjun M.R./Ramchandran Shlok of India in the first round of main draw.
Interestingly, current World No. 1 Kento Momota was the 2017 Dutch Open champion where he defeated teammate Yu Igarashi 21-10, 21-12 to pick up his fourth international titles since his suspension for illegal gambling was lifted on May 15, 2017.
The Dutch Open is an annual badminton tournament held in the Netherlands since 1932, and offers total prize money of USD $75,000.
