Tough task: Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing will play Thailand’s world No. 4 Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the quarter-finals of the China Open today.
PETALING JAYA: Shuttlers Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei have continued from where they left off in the World Championships.
The world No. 11 Tang Jie-Ee Wei gave a rousing show to topple South Korea’s world No. 6 Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun 21-15, 15-21, 21-18 in 59 minutes in the mixed doubles second round at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium yesterday.
Just last month, they did well to storm into the quarter-finals in their maiden world meet together in Copenhagen.
It was a second straight upset win for the duo over the Koreans after also triumphing in the Asian Championships in April.
“It was a very intense match and our opponents played well and did not make it easy for us,” said Tang Jie in their post match interview with Spotv Malaysia.
“We are happy to have won but we need to cut down the mistakes from our game if we want to progress further.”
Tang Jie-Ee Wei have a great opportunity to reach the last four as they will play Taiwan’s world No. 15 Ye Hong-wei-Lee Chia-hsin next.
The former have never lost to the Taiwanese duo, having beaten them in all their past three meetings including in the final of the Orleans Masters in France in April.Meanwhile, struggling independent pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing made it into their first individual tournament quarter-finals of the year after a hard fought 18-21, 21-19, 21-12 victory over Indonesia’s fourth ranked pair Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva.
Kian Meng-Pei Jing were relieved after ending their poor run.
“I feel very happy as it is our first quarter-finals of the year,” said Pei Jing.
“This win means a lot for us as all our hard work has paid off. But the job is not over for us as we have another important match tomorrow (today).”
Kian Meng-Pei Jing have an uphill battle next against Thailand’s world No. 4 Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
It was also joy in the men’s doubles when national No. 1 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik set up an all-Malaysian quarter-final clash against independent pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi after a superb 21-16, 21-17 win over homesters He Jiting-Zhao Haodong.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi beat Denmark’s Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard 21-12, 21-17 in another second round match.
In the women’s doubles, it was the end of the road for Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah after losing 16-21, 16-21 to Japan’s Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota.
