Paris: After losing a very close first game to compatriots – Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin 22-24, as Malaysia’s World No. 16 Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi were on the verge of losing the first round of the 2021 French Open when they were trailing 18-20 in the second set, Ong/Teo then able to save a match point to narrow the gap to 19-20. Suddenly, Teo got a lucky net shot when the shuttlecock he returned hit the net and tumbled over to Goh/Izzuddin’s side of the court to level the score at 20-20, motivating Ong/Teo to win the game 22-20.
Ong/Teo were pretty much in control in the second half of the decider, pressuring Goh/Izzuddin to make mistakes to ultimately defeat their countrymen 21-17 to set up a second-round meeting with World No. 74 Callum Hemming/Steven Stallwood of England.
In men’s singles, World No. 33 Daren Liew fought hard, but was no match to World No. 13 Kanta Tsuneyama, losing 18-21, 13-21 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong pulled off an upset on Tuesday, beating World No. 3 Anders Antonsen 21-19, 21-19 to battle World No. 39 Thomas Rouxel of French on Thursday.
Malaysia’s World No. 8 mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying who suffered a first-round exit at last week’s Denmark Open, got off to a strong start in Paris by overcoming India’s newly formed mixed doubles pair – Dhruv Kapila/Reddy N. Sikki 21-19, 21-19 to play Japan’s World No. 17 Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo next.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Chan/Goh deal with Kaneko/Matsutomo in the French Open second round as the Malaysian pair suffered a devastating straight-set loss to the Japanese pair in the 2021 All England semi-final after leading with 16-4 in the second set. Chan/Goh eventually lost to Kaneko/Matsutomo 14-21, 20-22 at the All England championships.
Another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai managed to ease past Oliver Leydon-Davis/Anona Pak of New Zealand 21-9, 21-12 to meet Rodion Alimov/Alina Davletova of Russia in the second round.
The World No. 25 Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See of Malaysia also cruised into the second round and are waiting for the winners between Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan or Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia.
