PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi remained steady to reach the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open on a day when another of their seniors bit the dust.
Roy King-Arif were tested by teammates Mohd Haikal Nazri-Choong Hon Jian before coming away with a 21-17, 21-19 win at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon yesterday.
Seniors Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun though could not follow the youngsters into the last eight after going down 17-21, 21-11, 15-21 to Taiwan’s world No. 14 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
The world No. 6 pair’s disappointing defeat came two days after world No. 2 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik also crashed out after losing to England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the first round.
World No. 20 Roy King-Arif are now keen to make up for their seniors’ defeats by going further in the tournament.
The pair are eyeing another big scalp against India’s World Championships bronze medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty today after toppling Denmark’s world No. 4 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in their opening match.
“If we play against a top 10 pair, we must try to get a breakthrough against them. Our mindset must be right,” said Roy King in a post-match interview with the Badminton World Federation.
“We must treat ourselves as the underdogs and go all out. We must communicate well and find ways to beat them.
“The pressure will always be there but this approach will help us enjoy the match and play our normal game at the same time.”
Roy King-Arif are riding high after capturing the Macau Open title last month and enjoying an encouraging debut in their last outing in the world meet in Paris, making it into the third round before losing narrowly in three games to Aaron-Wooi Yik.
Arif though believes they still have room for improvement and was not satisfied with his performance with Roy King against Haikal-Hon Jian.
“We weren’t at our best and made a lot of unforced errors. Haikal-Hon Jian learnt from their previous defeat to us in the Macau Open and put up a good fight,” said Arif.
“We hope to get our momentum back after our win in the first round on Tuesday. We were hitting many shots into the net and wide, and we have to cut down on that.”
In their only meeting against Satwiksairaj-Chirag so far in the Thailand Open last year, Roy King-Arif lost tamely in straight games.
The duo are fired up to do much better this time around.
