Mohd Arif pulls off major upset by beating top seed

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PASIR GUDANG: Unseeded Malaysian Mohd Arif Abdul Latif pulled off a pleasant upset in the Yonex-Sunrise Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton championships by booting out top seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk from Thailand in the first round at the Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium.

Mohd Arif comfortably beat Tanongsak 21-19, 21-18 in straight sets to move into the second round of the US$120,000 (RM384,000) men’s singles competition.

“I did not set any target for myself and started the match without any pressure. However, I will give my best shot in the tournament,” he said.

Mohd Arif, ranked 98 in the world will face Taiwan’s Yang Chih Hsun, ranked 127 in the world, today.

Chih Hsun made it to the second round after beating Singapore’s Robin Gonansa 21-18, 21-19.

Meanwhile, second seed Chong Wei Feng who will be spearheading the country’s challenge in the championship due to the absence of world number one Datuk Lee Chong Wei, beat Taiwan’s Hsueh Hsuan Yi 21-19, 21-10 to book his berth in the next round.

Wei Feng will face China’s Yuxiang Huang who had beaten another Taiwan player Shao Wen Hsu 21-19, 21-18 but another rising star Zulfadli Zulkiffli had to concede a walkover after limping out of his match against Indonesia’s Siswanto who was leading 14-10 when the Malaysian retired.

Siswanto will now play another Malaysian, Teck Zhi Soo who beat India’s Subhankar Dey 21-18, 21-9.

Other Malaysians who made it to the second round are Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub, Yeoh Seng Zoe and Goh Soon Huat. — Bernama