Wuhan: The Rio Olympic mixed doubles silver medalists Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying showed grit and determination to come from a set down against Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Tan Wei Han of Singapore by advancing to the second round of the 2019 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) on Tuesday. They lost to the Singaporean pair 13-21 in the first set.
The No. 5 seeds Malaysian pair then rallied from a 15-19 deficits in the second set, forcing a decider by claiming the game 22-20.
Chan/Goh regained the momentum in the decider to see off their opponents 21-18 to set up a second round meeting with He Jiting/Du Yue of China who got a bye in the first round.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, who emerged as Singapore Open runners-up two weeks ago, put up a good fight against World No. 1 Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong of China, but the Chinese pair proved to be too much for the feisty Tan/Lai as they were getting smacked by the top seeds from China 12-21, 21-14, 15-21.
Zheng/Huang will take on Amrullo Bakhshullaev/Sevinch Sodikova of Uzbekistan next.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Chen Tang Jie/Peck Yen Wei was also stopped in the first round in the hands of Yeung Ming Nok/Ng Tsz Yau from Hong Kong, losing 15-21, 17-21.
In men’s singles, the Penang-born Cheam June Wei has advanced to the main draw after beating Amir Jabbari of Iran 21-13, 21-14 and Niluka Karunaratne from Sri Lanka 21-11, 19-21, 21-18 in the qualifying rounds.
Cheam will face Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin in the first round on Wednesday.
