[UPDATED] World Badminton C'ships: No happy debut for Tze Yong

KUALA LUMPUR – It’s the end of the road for national men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong after he crashed out in round two of the World Badminton Championships in Tokyo, Japan today.

World no. 42 Tze Yong, who is making his debut in the world meet, went down fighting 9-21, 21-10, 19-21 to Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin in a one hour and 10-minute battle at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Tze Yong, who won the men’s singles silver medal at the recent Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, showed great fighting spirit to bounce back to take the second game after losing the first, but he could not turn the tide against the world no. 33 in the decider.  

Meanwhile, national women’s singles ace S. Kisona fell at the first hurdle when she went down 10-21, 17-21 to world no. 80 Vu Thị Trang of Vietnam.

There was better luck for the other women’s singles shuttler, Soniia Cheah, as she began her campaign with a hard-fought 21-19, 21-18 win over world no. 44 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia.

Soniia, who is ranked 40th in the world, can expect a torrid time next as she will be up against fourth seed and 2020 Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei of China.

National women’s doubles pair Anna Ching Yik Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing lived up to expectations when they defeated Germans Stine Kuespert-Emma Moszczynski 21-13, 21-15 in 39 minutes.

Anna-Mei Xing will take on ninth seed Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong of South Korea in the second round tomorrow.

In the mixed doubles category, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing made it through to the third round to meet Japan’s Kyohei Yamashita-Naru Shinoya.

The eighth-seeded pair defeated mother-son duo Svetlana-Misha Zilberman of Israeli in straight sets, 21-6, 21-5 in 22 minutes. 

Compatriots Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei did not meet the same fate as they lost to China’s fourth-seeded Wang Li Yu-Huang Dong Ping, 21-14, 12-21, 21-11. – Bernama, August 23, 2022