Bangkok: Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi lost their first set, but then turned on the quality performance in the next two games to beat World No. 4 Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 18-21, 21-16, 23-21 to sail into the Thailand Open second round on Tuesday.
Ong/Teo set pulses racing in the third set as they rallied from 7-14 down to tie the score at 19-19, 20-20, before overcoming the 2013, 2015 World Champions from Indonesia in 51 minutes.
The World No. 22 pair from Malaysia will meet another former World Champions in the second round – Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol of Korea who won the 2014 World title in Copenhagen.
In another men’s doubles first round match, World No. 9 men’s pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik exacted a sweet revenge against World No. 14 Liao Min Chun/Su Ching Heng of Taiwan for their first round loss in the Australian Open early last month, beating the Taiwanese pair 21-19, 21-14 in 29 minutes. The unseeded Malaysian pair will face winners between Bodin Isara/Maneepong Jongjit of Thailand and Huang Kai Xiang/Liu Cheng of China in the next round.
Meanwhile, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong refused their third consecutive first round losses by defeating Berry Angriawan/Hardianto Hardianto of Indonesia 21-11, 21-10. The Rio Olympic silver medalists will meet No. 7 seeds Han Cheng Kai/Zhou Hao Dong on Thursday. Goh/Tan were knocked out by Japan’s Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda in the first round of Indonesia Open two weeks ago, and went down to Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pangkaryanira/Ade Yusuf Santoso of Indonesia last Wednesday at Japan Open.
Fresh from winning last week’s Japan Open, Korea’s Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong were barely troubled by Vivian Hoo/Yap Cheng Wen of Malaysia, winning their opener 21-14, 21-16. They will meet Du Yue/Li Yin Hui of China in the following round.
