THE national mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing finally overcame their opening hurdle woes in their seventh attempt when they beat Taiwan’s Liao Min-chun-Chen Hsiao-huan 21-16, 21-15 to check into the second round of the World Championships.
The world No. 21 gave Min-chun-Hsiao-huan no chance, sealing the win in 34 minutes yesterday.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing have failed to win a match in the first round since March.
They came a cropper in the opening matches at the German Open, All-England, Asian Championships, the Malaysian Open, Indonesian Open and Thailand Open.
“We’re really happy to win today. This is such an important win ... we have not tasted victory for quite awhile,” said Kian Meng.
“The win has restored our confidence. We’re now looking to build on this solid start and hopefully we can go far this week.”
Pei Jing heaved a huge sigh of relief after their long wait for a win.
“I didn’t even want to look at the scoreboard, all I know was that we need to win point after point,” said Pei Jing.
“If we commit an error, we would make up for it swiftly. Kian Meng and I also backed each other up. I’m glad that we won today.”
The Malaysian duo will next take on Thailand’s world No. 19 Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai, who are the 2017 SEA Games champions.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing beat the Thai pair at the 2016 Thailand Open semi-finals but lost their previous encounter at the same stage of the Singapore Open in 2017.
Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie will begin their campaign today after receiving a first-round bye by virtue of being the top 16 seeded pairs.
Eighth seeds Peng Soon-Liu Ying face Saurabh Sharma-Anoushka Parikh of India while Soon Huat-Shevon meet Jacco Arends-Selena Piek of Holland.
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