KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong marches forward after dismantling world number 14 Kanta Tsuneyama at the Hong Kong Open second round today.
World number 20 Tze Yong needed 41 minutes to overpower Kanta, 21-12, 21-11, for his second straight win against the Japanese to meet Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen tomorrow in the quarterfinal.
Fellow compatriot and 14th-ranked Lee Zii Jia had a different fate after succumbing to 36th-ranked Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chia Hao, 21-19, 17-21, 20-22.
Meanwhile, women’s singles player Goh Jin Wei is also through to the last eight after opponent Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand conceded a walkover before the game started as it was believed that she was suffering from an ankle injury.
Men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani staged an upset against Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan in straight games, 21-13, 21-15, in only 31 minutes.
In an all-Malaysian affair, top national women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah thrashed Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing in just 31 minutes, 21-7, 21-10.
In the mixed doubles event, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing succumbed to Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito, 16-21, 18-21.
As of the time of writing, the Malaysian camp still has three more matches to go for the rest of the day, through men’s singles Leong Jun Hao and mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai.
Jun Hao pulled off an amazing feat on Tuesday after he excelled in two qualifying matches to secure a spot in the main draw of the Super 500 tournament.
He then overpowered Thailand Masters champion Lin Chun-yi from Chinese Taipei in their first-round encounter.
Their games are expected to start at 7.30pm. – September 14, 2023