Kuala Lumpur: Chan Peng Soon-Lai Pei Jing upset world No. 19 and eight seeds Kenichi Hayakawa-Misaki Matsutomo 21-15, 8-21, 23-21 in the first round of India Open.
This is the best win in their short stint together, and could be their last ever tournament as a pair. Peng Soon is expected to pair with his previous partner Goh Liu Ying in the Singapore Open Superseries next week (April 8-13).
Peng Soon, however said they just got lucky against the Japanese and wants get ready for their next opponent – South Korea’s Shin Baek-cheol-Eom Hye-won.
“We played with no pressure, and for some reason we were able to score some lucky points against the Japanese pair” said Peng Soon.
“However, I must admit it was our best performance compare to how we played at the All-England and the Malaysian Open GP Gold. We would like to keep the momentum heading into the next round.”
“I made a lot of mistakes, but Peng Soon never gave up, he kept fighting resiliently, he covered a lot of tough shots for me and kept on encouraging me,” said Pei Jing.
“We were down 2-8 and 14-18 in the third game but due to Peng Soon's determination to win, we eventually took the game from the Japanese."
The other mixed doubles pair from Malaysia, Mohd Lufti Zaim-Soong Fie Cho, were shown the exit by Indonesian Markis Kido-Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth 17-21, 11-21.
In other results, men’s pair Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah was able to recover from a heart-broken defeat last week in the Malaysian Open GP Gold by beating India’s Manu Attri-B. Sumeeth Reddy 21-19, 21-19; but Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong crashed out again in the first round to China’s Kang Jun-Liu Cheng 6-21, 18-21.
Chong Wei Feng who withdrew from the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open GP Gold last week due to a back injury was went down fighting 12-21, 21-15, 19-21 to Sho Sasaki from Japan. Sho will play seventh seed Du Pengyu of China next round.
