Dubai: The men’s doubles 8th seeded Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi narrowly edged past Japan’s World No. 35 Ayato Endo/Yuta Takei 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 to close out the men’s doubles second round match at the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) on Thursday.
The World No. 8 Ong/Teo will next face World No. 1 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia after Alfian/Ardianto defeated Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12 in the second round.
Nevertheless, Malaysia’s reigning World Champions – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik were halted in the second round when they lost to the Tokyo Olympics champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin from Taiwan 21-14, 16-21, 19-21.
Lee/Wang are set to play No. 7 seeds Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang of China in the last eight.
After losing the first game 12-21, the mixed doubles World No. 8 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai fought back from 19-20 to steal the second game 22-20 from China’s World No. 51 Cheng Xing/Chen Fang Hui and thus forcing a decider.
Goh/Lai didn’t give their opponents any breathing room in the third set to eventually advanced with the score of 12-21, 22-20, 21-15 and will take on Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia.
However, in another mixed doubles match, Malaysia’s rising pair Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei failed to convert when they had two game point advantage to lose the first game 21-23 against Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia. Although they won the second game 21-18, Chen/Toh couldn’t carry their momentum into the third set by going down 15-21 in the rubber game.
Jordan/Oktavianti will play No. 1 seeds Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong of China for a place in the semi-finals.
