Kumamoto: The world’s number two men’s pair, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, from Malaysia, got off to a strong start at the Japan Masters, defeating the 2020 Tokyo Olympics champions Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-14 in the first round.
Chia and Wooi Yik will now face world No. 16 Akira Koga and Taichi Saito of Japan in the second round.
In men’s singles, Lee Zii Jia, who had rejected the offer to join Malaysia’s Road to Gold (RTG) program, was eliminated in the first round of the Japan Masters on Wednesday.
Lee put up a strong fight against Anders Antonsen of Denmark but lost 18-21, 20-22.
Antonsen will meet the tournament’s third seed, Kodai Naraoka from Japan, in the quarter-finals.
Lee’s defeat means that only Ng Tze Yong is still competing in the men’s singles event for Malaysia. Ng successfully advanced to the second round and will face the world number one, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark on Thursday.
Ng advanced to the top 16 group after defeating Wang Tzu Wei from Taiwan 21-12, 21-11, while Axelsen eliminated the Indonesian player, Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 21-11, 21-7.
