Down and out: Ong Yew Sin (left) and Teo Ee Yi lost 15-21, 11-21 to Indonesians Sabar Karyaman-Moh Reza in the second round.
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi suffered another blow in their quest to qualify for the Paris Olympics when they were eliminated in the second round of the Indonesian Masters.
World No. 12 Yew Sin-Ee Yi had been forced to miss the Indian Open last week after the latter was denied entry into New Delhi after wrongly using his old passport to fill his online visa application form.
The independent pair were hoping to make up for the lost opportunity but came up short after suffering a shock 15-21, 11-21 defeat at the hands of world No. 46 homesters Sabar Karyaman-Moh Reza in Jakarta on Thursday.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi had beaten Sabar-Moh in their only meeting in international competitions previously in the 2021 edition but could not replicate their performance there this time.
A disappointed Yew Sin admitted that he and Ee Yi had lost to the better pair on the day.
“They played really well. They controlled the match and we found it hard to gain points,” said Yew Sin in a post-match interview with SPOTV.
“They hardly made mistakes and were consistent throughout the match.
“We need to learn how to overcome opponents when they play at an extraordinary level.”
Yew Sin-Ee Yi are now running out of time in their bid to make the cut for the Olympics.
The pair need to break into the top eight in the world before the end of the qualifying period in April to join world No. 5 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in Paris.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi need to raise their performances, starting with the Thailand Masters which gets underway next Tuesday in Bangkok to stand any chance of earning a spot in the Olympics.
Meanwhile, it was all over for Malaysia in the men’s doubles in the Indonesian tourney after youngsters Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri’s campaign also came to an end.
World No. 49 Hon Jian-Haikal went down 17-21, 19-21 to Denmark’s world No. 38 Daniel Lundgaard-Mads Vestergaard.
