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KUALA LUMPUR – It was a poor start for Malaysia in the opening round of the BWF World Tour Finals’ group stage today held at Nimibutr Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing were the only Malaysians to win after defeating China’s Wang Yi Lyu-Huang Dong Ping in Group B.
The Tokyo Olympics champions proved to be a worthy opponent for Malaysia’s favourite pair as it took more than an hour to overpower them in three sets, 23-21, 14-21, 21-16.
It was the Malaysians’ first win against the Chinese duo in all of their eight meetings.
“We feel great. We are satisfied with our game plan and focus.
“It was our first win against them as we lost to them seven times in a row,” said Pei Jing after the match.
In the men’s doubles Group B match, reigning world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik lost to Indonesia’s second-seeded Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan in straight sets, 12-21, 15-21 in 21 minutes.
They admitted that it was quite a challenge to break the Indonesian pair’s rhythm during the first set as Ahsan-Hendra had better control of the game.
“We started quite slow in the first game. They took control of the match,” said Wooi Yik.
Aaron added, “we could have done better. Our confidence might have been a little bit off during the second game.”
Joining Aaron-Wooi Yik in defeat were Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah as they lost to Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in their women’s doubles Group B match. They lost 21-23, 19-21.
“I think today did not go as planned because there were a lot of shots that I was not confident of taking,” said Thinaah.
“We have to go back and analyse what mistakes we made today and most importantly improve the communication with each other,” added Pearly.
Meanwhile in Group A, women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien went down in 43 minutes to South Korea’s top-seeded pair Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong in straight sets, 18-21, 13-21.
Men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi also lost to Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi, 19-21, 16-21, and Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas Mentari defeated fourth-seeded mixed doubles Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai, 21-12, 15-21. – The Vibes, December 7, 2022
