Malaysia No. 3 upstages national champion Zulfadli to advance
KUCHING: Malaysian challenger Daren Liew booked his place in the third round of the men’s singles at the Yonex-Sunrise Malaysian Masters badminton championship at the Sarawak Indoor Stadium yesterday with a hard-fought straight sets win over compatriot Zulfadli Zulkiffli.
On the day of upsets, reigning national champion Zulfadli did not make it easy for the national men’s singles number three shuttler Liew who won 23-21, 22-20 as former world number one shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei watched from the VIP grandstand.
Liew is to play Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei who brushed aside Indonesian hopeful Anthony Ginting 21-15, 21-15 in the other second round match.
“It was tough playing the newly crowned national champion Zulfadli and I am happy that I won and my performance is getting better and better.
“Hopefully I can maintain my form in the further stages of this competition,” said Liew who upstaged number sixth seed T Ueda 21-18, 21-15 in the first round on Wednesday.
This is his first international tournament of the year and Liew is targeting to play in more Grand Prix Gold Series tournaments to earn more ranking points in his bid to qualify for the next Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 2018.
Joining Liew in the third round is compatriot Soo Teck Zhi who beat India’s Subhankar Dey 21-19, 17-21, 21-10 while other Malaysians Iskandar Zainuddin, Soong Joo Ven and Goh Soon Huat all lost their matches.
Also scheduled to play later yesterday were national number two player Chong Wei Feng and last year’s Maybank Malaysia Kuching International Challenge champion Lee Hyun Il of South Korea.
In the women’s singles second round competition, number two seed PV Sindhu from India demolished her opponent from South Korea Kim Hyo Min 21-14, 21-12 with her fast and aggressive play.
Sindhu will meet Porntip Buranaprasertsuksi of Thailand in the last eight after the eighth seed defeated Malaysia’s sole survivor Lydia Cheah Li Ya in straight sets of 21-18, 21-14.
Japan dominated the competition yesterday with five of their players making the quarterfinals.
They are third seed Sayaka Takahashi, fourth seed Naomi Okuhara, Kaori Imabeppu, Sayaka Sato, Yui Hashimoto while the remaining slot for the last eight was secured by Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong who beat Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-14.
Three Malaysian pairs
advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles competition, with Tan Wei Han-Terry Hee Yong Kai beating Indonesia’s Didit Juang-Keshya Nurvita Hanadia 21-9, 21-12 while Chan Peng Soon-Lai Pei Jing ousted fourth seeds Markis Kido-Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth from Indonesia 21-18, 21-14 and Wong Fai Yin-Chow Mei Kuan upstaging sixth seeds Alfian Eko Prasetya-Annisa Saufika of Indonesia in straight sets of 21-19, 21-18.