Jakarta: Malaysia’s World No. 16 men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia produced a brilliant performance in the Indonesia Open first round when he disposed Thai player Khosit Phetpradab 21-14, 21-13 on Wednesday.
The victory extended Lee’s career meeting record against Phetpradab to 2-0. Lee overcame Phetpradab in the Taiwan Open quarter-finals two years ago.
Lee, however, faces a tough second round battle when he will clash with the 2016 Rio Olympic gold medalist Chen Long of China, who rallied from a set down to beat local shuttler Tommy Sugiarto 22-20, 14-21, 21-17.
In mixed doubles, World No. 5 pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying have advanced to the last 16 of the Super 1000 tournament. Chan/Goh lost their first game to Indonesia’s Ronald Ronald/Annisa Saufika before winning the second and the third 21-7, 21-11. The No. 5 seeds will take on Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yujung of Korea next.
Meanwhile, another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai needed only 29 minutes to tame Kohei Gondo/Ayane Kurihara of Japan 21-12, 21-8 to set up a second round battle with No. 6 sees Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia.
Malaysia’s women’s singles player Soniia Cheah also achieved a stellar success by upsetting China’s World No. 15 player Cai Yan Yan 21-18, 21-17 in the opener.
“It was a great victory for me and I hoped to continue the momentum in the next round,” said Cheah.
“Today I made some easy mistakes, especially in the second set. My opponent upped the tempo a little bit but I was able to wrap up the match with a victory,” said the World No. 37.
Soniia will face World No. 2 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the second round on Thursday.
Lastly, all Malaysian men’s doubles pairs have crashed out of the tournament.
