Chong Wei marches into French Open second round

In the first round match held at the Stade Pierre De Coubertin in Paris early Wednesday, the 31-year-old Penangite who is also the top seed was given a tough fight by Kashyap Parupalli of India in the first set before emerging victorious with 22-20, 21-12, according to the tournament’s website, www.yonexifb.com.Chong Wei will meet another Indian shuttler, Ajay Jayaram, after the player defeated Kazumasa Sakai of Japan, 21-16 and 21-11 in another opening round match.Defending champion, Liew Daren meanwhile continued his lacklustre performance in this year’s Super Series badminton tournament after he was knocked out by sixth seed, Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, with the scores at 21-15, 15-21 and 19-21.

Chong Wei Feng met the same fate when he lost 19-21, 21-13 and 13-21 to Japanese left-handed shuttler, Sho Sasaki.

Several national players will be in action later Wednesday such as world number five men’s doubles pair, Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong who will play against Japanese pair, Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata, while Hoon Thien How and Tan Wee Kiong will square off with Poland’s pair, Adam Cwalina and Przemyslaw Wacha.

Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying who are seeded fifth will be taking on Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda of Japan in the opening round of the mixed doubles category, also later in the day.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) did not send representatives in the women’s singles and doubles categories in the tournament, which offers a total prize money of US$200,000 (RM631,530). –BERNAMA