Paris: The mixed doubles World No. 8 Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia avenged their 2021 All England heartache as they dumped World No. 17 Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo of Japan out of the French Open on Thursday – and cruised into the quarter-finals.
The Malaysian pair was dramatically knocked out of 2021 All England after suffering a never-before-seen humbling against Kaneko/Matsutomo in the semi-finals. At that time, Chan/Goh lost the first game 21-14 but were leading 16-4 in the second set, before crumbling to demolition by losing the second game 20-22.
Fortunately, Chan/Goh managed to stop history from repeating itself Thursday by beating the Japanese pair 21-19, 21-14 to meet another Japanese pair, the World No. 4, and last week’s Denmark Open champions – Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino on Friday.
Another mixed doubles pair from Malaysia, World No. 13 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai have no trouble easing past Rodion Alimov/Alina Davletova of Russia 21-9, 21-13 to meet World No. 3 and the No. 1 seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the last eight.
In men’s singles, World No. 1 Kento Momota came back from a 4-11 deficit in the first set to see off World No. 12 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 21-18. Momota will take on World No. 20 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito for a spot in the semi-finals.
Malaysia’s World No. 16 men’s doubles pair – Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi overcame Callum Hemming/Steven Stallwood of England 21-8, 21-8 on Thursday to earn their quarter-finals berth at the 2021 French Open. Ong/Teo will next face World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia, while another Malaysian pair – World No. 8 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik will battle World No. 11 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India for a spot in the semi-finals.
