Saarbrucken: Malaysian Chong Wei Feng pressed and fought, but ultimately failed to escape the Bitburger Open men’s singles third round against German No. 3 seed Marc Zwiebler on Thursday. Zwiebler’s 17-21, 21-13, 21-17 victory was his second against Chong in their 3rd career meetings.
Men’s No. 2 seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia who fell 3 spots to world No. 11 in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday, losing a grueling and hard-fought last 16 match 10-21, 22-20, 10-21 against unseeded Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan. Sugiarto has been struggling to make much impact on the badminton court, after his runner-up finish at Denmark Open two weeks ago. The Indonesian crashed out in the first round of French Open last Wednesday followed by the third round exit at Bitburger today.
It was so close and so hard fought that it almost, well, almost doesn’t matter anymore when Indian women’s doubles No. 2 pair Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa was dispatched 21-23, 21-13, 24-26 by unseeded Samantha Barning/Iris Tabeling of Netherlands in 51 minutes. Barning/Tabeling’s made their head to head meetings against Gutta/Ponnappa to 1-2 after the victory.
Malaysia’s Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei were brilliant in the second round, when they beat Leanne Choo/Nadia Fankhauser 21-17, 21-9 to set up a quarter-finals meet against Heather Olver/Lauren Smith of England next.
Despite showing some resistance, Malaysia’s Tee Jing Yi was dismissed by No. 4 seed Akane Yamaguchi in women’s singles second round, losing 18-21, 17-21 in 37 minutes.
After winning the first set with 21-16 against Taiwanese Yu Lin Chia/Wu Hsiao-Lin, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong who seeded third in men’s doubles slipped and fell down in the second set with 16-21. In the decider, Goh/Tan regained most the dominance they’d shown in the first set, fended off the Taiwanese pair 21-13. Goh/Tan will take on No. 6 seeds Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan in the quarter-finals.
The Malaysian camp saw mixed results in the mixed doubles matches, where Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying enjoyed a 21-11, 21-11 victory against Gennadiy Natarov/Natalya Voytsekh of Ukraine, while Wong Fai Yin/Chow Mei Kuan were knocked out by No. 4 seeds Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels of Germany, losing 13-21, 12-21.
