All fired up: Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King in action against Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan during the second round of the Malaysian Masters. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Young and rising men’s doubles shuttlers Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi punched above their weight to storm into the last eight of the Malaysian Masters.
Just a week after pulling off an upset win over Taiwan’s world No. 21 Lu Ching-yao-Yang Po-han in the Thailand Open, Roy King-Arif rose to the occasion to stun the latter’s teammates and world No. 12 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan 13-21, 21-15, 21-18 in a thrilling second round match at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The youngsters, who leaped from No. 64 to No. 47 in the world rankings after reaching the quarter-finals of the Thailand tourney, were brimming with confidence and fought brilliantly to come from behind to upstage their much higher ranked opponents much to the delight of the passionate home fans.
Roy King-Arif were happy to come away with the biggest win in their careers so far.
“We feel very thankful that we managed to win this match,” said Arif.
“We were fired up and just wanted to give a good fight. In the third game, we did well in the first three shots and this gave us the advantage.
“We stayed patient and managed to hold on to our lead to win.
Roy King said: “These wins increase our confidence and proves that we have the quality to compete with the top 30 pairs in the world.
“We are aiming to break into the top 32 in the world and it’s great to compete in higher tier events where we can see where we need to improve on.”
Roy King-Arif will next face Denmark’s world No. 18 Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard.
On the match, Arif said: “We don’t want to think too much but we will just go out there and try to play our best.
“We are feeling confident but we need to maintain our focus and prepare well for the match.
Overall, it was a great day for Malaysia when three other representatives – Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun – also booked their spots in the quarter-finals.
Aaron-Wooi Yik overcame a second game blip to beat China’s Chen Boyang-Liu Yi 21-13, 13-21, 21-10 while Sze Fei-Izzuddin swept aside Thailand’s Peeratchai Sukphun-Pakkapon Teeraratsakul 21-17, 21-12.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will play South Korea’s Jin Yong-Na Sung-seung next while Sze Fei-Izzuddin will go up against Denmark’s world No. 5 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
Meanwhile, Wei Chong-Kai Wun defeated teammates Choong Hon Jian-Mohd Haikal Nazri 21-15, 21-19 and will take on China’s world No. 11 He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu for a place in the semis.
