Two Malaysian doubles pairs in the hunt
News 9:37 AM
PETALING JAYA: The doubles department kept the Malaysian flag flying high in the Japan Open with Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty checking into the quarter-finals yesterday.
Seventh seeds Fairuzizuan-Zakry took only 31 minutes to beat Chinese youngsters Chai Biao-Zhang Nan 21-15, 21-12.
And they will be out to extend their unbeaten record against Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki-Rian Sukmawan today to get into the semi-finals. They had beaten the Indonesian youngsters four times and the last was in the third round of the world championships in Hyderabad last month.
It is left to Zakry-Fairuzizuan to keep the Malaysian interest alive in the men’s doubles following the shock exits of second seeds Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong in the opening round on Wednesday.
If the duo can keep up the momentum, they stand a good chance of ending a two-year title drought on the international circuit.
Getting into the semi-finals will pit the 2007 Singapore and Indonesia Open champions against either Howard Bach-Tony Gunawan of the United States or Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata of Japan.
The other quarter-final matches are between top seeded Indonesians Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan and Koreans Hwang Ji-man-Shin Baek-cheol; and Danes Mathias Boe-Carsten Morgensen and Indonesians Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan.
It will be tough in the women’s doubles quarter-finals for world No. 1 Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty. They will be up against fifth seeds Ma Jin-Wang Xiaoli of China.
Yesterday, Eei Hui-Pei Tty overcame a jittery start to beat Savitree Amitrapai-Vacharaporn Munkit of Thailand 21-19, 21-12 while Ma Jin-Xiaoli put up a convincing show to beat Ayane Kurihara-Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-9, 21-13.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 9:37 AM.
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