Kuala Lumpur
What a smashing start from national men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi at the Celcom Axiata Malaysian Open.
Playing in only their first competitive match together in two months, the national No. 2 pair created one of the biggest upsets of the day when they sent world No. 3 and second seeds Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark packing with a 21-17, 18-21, 21-13 win in a thrilling 65-minute first round match yesterday.
And the unexpected win by the world No. 38 sent the home fans into a frenzy. They lost to the Danes once at the Hong Kong Open in 2016.
“It feels great, I can’t believe that we pulled it off,” said Ee Yi.
“The key factor to our win is our home ground advantage. The thunderous cheers from the fans really spurred us on.
“We have accomplished our target with this upset win over the Danes. Now, we aim to go further.”
For Ee Yi, it was also quick revenge of sorts having lost to Boe during the Thomas Cup group stage in Bangkok, Thailand, last month.
Then, Ee Yi and debutant Aaron Chia, lost in three games to Boe and Mathias Christiansen in the second doubles tie which eventually led to Malaysia’s 3-2 defeat.
“It’s definitely a sweet revenge. Boe and I played with different partners then,” said Ee Yi.
Joining them in the last 16 are Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, who shrugged off service woes to register a convincing 21-15, 21-10 win over Thailand’s Kittisak Namdash-Tinn Isiyanet.
V Shem was clearly furious with the service judge for faulting him “eight or nine times”.
The new service rule implemented by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) last month states that the whole shuttlecock should be below 1.15m from the surface of the court at the moment it touches the server’s racquet.
“We have been practising it quite a while, and I believe I got it right. But I wasn’t sure why the service judge kept faulting me. It’s really frustrating,” lamented V Shem.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s challenge in the mixed doubles came to disappointing end when all three pairs Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie were wiped out from the tournament.
Two-time runners-up Peng Soon-Liu Ying failed to capitalise on the two-match points they held in the opening game to lose 22-24, 9-21 to Taiwan’s Wang Chi-lin-Lee Chia-hsin.
Peng Soon was lost for words.
“We were really poor. I really don’t know how to explain. Nothing worked for us today,” said a dejected Peng Soon.
