PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Mohd Faiq Masawi-Lok Hong Quan’s hopes of winning their maiden senior international title in their final outing together were dashed when they came second in the Vietnam International Series.
The youngsters will be split up after the tourney and were hoping to end on a high note but narrowly went down 19-21, 18-21 to Taiwan’s He Zhi-wei-Huang Jui-hsuan in Ninh Binh yesterday.
Faiq-Hong Quan, who were seeded seventh, did well to beat China’s Chen Anjun-Chen Sihang and another Taiwanese pair, fifth seeds Chen Yu-che-Tseng Ping-chiang en route to the final but could not crown their fine run with the title.
It was still the Malaysians’ best outing after they made it into their first senior international tournament final.
Faiq-Hong Quan also went one step further after finishing as semi-finalists in the Malaysian International Series in Johor last week.
The pair’s best achievements were winning the Malaysian Junior International Challenge and Malaysia Games (Sukma) gold in August.
Faiq-Hong Quan were the only Malaysians who reached the final in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, women’s doubles pair Cheng Su Hui-Lee Xin Jie, who finished runners-up in the home tourney, could not make it into back-to-back finals when they lost out 9-21, 16-21 to China’s Ling Fangling-Zhou Xinru in the last four.
It was Su Hui-Xin Jie’s second consecutive defeat to the Chinese duo after the latter also denied them the title at home last week.
Fangling also combined with Chen Shangyi to beat mixed doubles pair Wee Yee Hern-Vannee Gobi 21-14, 13-21, 21-13 in the semi-final.
FINAL RESULTS
Men’s singles: Kim Byung-jae (Kor) bt Chao Liu-hai (Tpe) 21-19, 22-20.
Men’s doubles: He Zhi-wei-Huang Jui-hsuan (Tpe) bt Mohd Faiq Masawi-Lok Hong Quan 21-19, 21-18.
Women’s singles: Kana Furukawa (Jpn) bt Kim Min-ji (Kor) 21-19, 21-7.
Women’s doubles: Lin Fanling-Zhou Xinru (Chn) bt Hu Shenhan-Luo Yi (Chn) 21-15, 21-12.
Mixed doubles: Chen Shangyi-Lin Fangling (Chn) bt Pham Van Hai-Than Van Anh (Vie) 21-13, 21-17.
