Birmingham: On a day of upsets, the 2017 mixed doubles finalists Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia had to dig deep to win their first round match at the 2019 All England.
Chan/Goh dropped the first set to Takuro Hoki/Wakana Nagahara before saving a match point to finally overcoming the Japanese pair 19-21, 21-10, 22-20 to advance to the second round. They will meet Tontowi Ahmad/Winny Oktavina Kandow of Indonesia on Thursday.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai was able to avoid upset and reached the second round by beating Ronald Ronald/Annisa Saufika of Indonesia 21-16, 21-11, setting up a second round meeting with Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith of England.
However, India’s women’s singles No. 5 seed PV Sindhu suffered a 16-21, 22-20, 18-21 loss against Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the opener.
Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei and Soniia Cheah were also crashed out in the opening round.
The women’s No. 1 seed Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan who was bidding for her third consecutive All England title, overcame Michelle Li of Canada 21-12, 21-15 to enter the second round.
China’s No. 3 seed Chen Yufei able to defeat compatriot Han Yue 21-10, 21-14 to join her teammates He Bingjiao, Li Xuerui and Chen Xiaoxin in the second round on Thursday.
