Superb win: Malaysia’s Anna Cheong (back) and Teoh Mei Xing celebrate after their biggest career win.
DOUBLES shuttlers roared the loudest at the Axiata Arena when four pairs made it to the quarter-finals.
Independent shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi started the ball rolling when they pulled off an explosive show to stun Tokyo Olympics champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan 21-17, 21-18 in a 41-minute second round match.
National No. 1 pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani also made it a grand day for the men’s doubles when they reached the quarter-finals albeit in contrasting fortunes.
And there was a pleasant surprise too as world No. 44 Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing sent second seeds and world No. 3 Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan of South Korea packing with a 18-21, 21-12, 21-15 win to enter the last eight of the women’s doubles.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi were on fire yesterday.
Spurred on by the huge home crowd, the duo played with pace and panache to claim their second win over the world No. 4 Lee Yang-Chi-lin whose best efforts were not enough to stop the fired-up Malaysians.
The world No. 10 Yew Sin-Ee Yi will take on Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto of Indonesia next, a pair whom they have failed to beat in the last two meetings this year at the Swiss Open and Korean Open.
“We didn’t think too much about their (Lee Yang-Chi-lin) status as the Olympics champions. We just did our best on court and thank God, we managed to win,” said Yew Sin.
This was the pair’s second consecutive victory over the Taiwanese in five meetings following their maiden win in the quarter-finals of the World Championships in Huelva, Spain last year, which earned them a bronze medal.
Ee Yi has promised to fight until the end to reach the last four.
“They have a superior record (6-4) but we will bank on home support to go far,” he said.
Aaron-Wooi Yik brushed aside the challenge of Singapore’s Terry Hee-Loh Kean Hean with a 21-16, 21-13 win in just 31 minutes to set up a meeting against Indonesian veterans and world No. 3 Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan.
Both are hoping to repeat their success over Ahsan-Hendra in the Tokyo Olympics bronze-medal match.
Sze Fei-Izzuddin did not even need to lift their racquets after India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty pulled out, citing a leg injury for the former.
All hopes were high for Sze Fei-Izzuddin to face off against Tan Kian Meng-Tan Wee Kiong but the independent shuttlers went down fighting 18-21, 21-17, 14-21 to China’s Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi.
It was unfortunate that Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah could not join Anna-Mei Xing in the last eight.
While Anna-Mei Xing were celebrating after their biggest career win that earned them a last eight match-up against world No. 6 Mayu Matsutomo-Wakana Nagahara, Pearly-Thinaah, ranked 10th in the world, were shown the exit after losing 19-21, 15-21 to China’s Zheng Shuxian-Zheng Yu (ranked 33).
