Bali: Malaysia’s World No. 7 men’s doubles pair – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik shrugged off a slow start in the 2021 Indonesia Open first round with a hard-fought three-set, 21-11, 15-21, 21-8 victory over Britain’s World No. 17 Ben Lane/Sean Vendy in 47 minutes battle on Wednesday.
Chia posted message below on his Facebook after the match:
“Great match against the British pair today 💪🏻
Next up ▶️ Indonesia pair.
Please continue to support us 🔥💪🏻”
The Malaysians will play World No. 138 Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani of Indonesia in the second round.
In other men’s doubles competition, Indonesia’s No. 2 seeds, Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan also advanced to the second round after registering a straight-game win over French pair Toma Junior Popov/Christo Popov with 21-17, 21-14.
Hendra Setiawan said that the shuttlecock was a little slow during the match and the players had to play with more patience.
“We faced a stiff challenge in the first set, but we played very patiently because the shuttlecock was a bit heavy, and we couldn’t score easily through smashing,” said Setiawan.
The World No. 2 Ahsan/Setiawan will meet World No. 10 Japanese pair Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi in the second round. The Japanese pair who are both 26 years old, just won the 2021 Denmark Open three weeks ago and has been in strong momentum.
“We will need to discuss with the coach about what type of strategy we should use against Hoki/Kobayashi,” said Ahsan.
“The most important thing tomorrow is that we need to stay focused and more patient because as Hendra said, the shuttlecock is a bit slow. So we can’t expect to kill your opponent in just a few shots, we have to be patient,” added Ahsan.
Meanwhile, in men’s singles, Indonesia’s No. 5 seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting was defeated by the non-seeded badminton player from Thailand, Kunlavut Vitidsarn. Despite winning the first game, Ginting ended up losing the next two with the final score of 21-19, 14-21, 13-21.
In addition to Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai and Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan have entered the mixed doubles and women’s doubles second round respectively. Goh/Lai will play No. 8 seeds Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong while Tan/Muralitharan will meet Fitriani Fitriani/Yulia Yosephine Susanto of Indonesia on Thursday.
