PETALING JAYA: Cheam June Wei (pic) made a positive return to competition by clearing the first round of the Syed Modi International in Lucknow, India, yesterday.
The professional men’s singles player, however, had to slog to beat S. Sankar of India 21-19, 23-21 to enter the second round.
June Wei had to skip the Korean and Japan Masters after aggravating a back injury during his stint in the Indonesian Masters in September.
He will play either Ade Resy of Azerbaijan or Jason Teh of Singapore for a place in the last eight.
“The back injury has gotten better since last week and I decided to give a shot in this meet, but I must remain cautious,” said June Wei.
National shuttler Justin Hoh scrapped through the first round by beating India’s Mithun Manjunath 21-18, 17-21, 21-17 to set up a meeting with another Indian and eighth seed Ayush Shetty of India.
The challenge is over for Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin, who came through the qualifiers, but then went down 12-21, 12-21 to top seed and home favourite Lakshya Sen.
In the men’s doubles, Bryan Goonting-Fazriq Mohd Razif smashed past Vishnu Sreekumar-Ashith Surya of India 21-15, 21-14 in the opener but they have a tough match against China’s Huang Di-Liu Yang next.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)’s top women’s singles player K. Letshanaa was unfortunate to be drawn against China’s Dai Wang and went down 16-21, 19-21 in the first round.
Many top players have skipped the Super 300 tournament, allowing a sea of local players to compete in the main draw.
