New Delhi: Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi who won the bronze medal at the 2021 BWF World Championships last December, coolly swept into the 2022 India Open semi-finals on Friday after beating India’s Ishaan Bhatnagar/Sai Pratheek K 21-7, 21-7 in just 19 minutes.
Ong/Teo will face No. 1 seeds, Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan on Saturday.
Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan became the only Indonesian players left in the tournament after overcoming Torjus Flaatten/Vegard Rikheim of Norway 21-12, 21-14.
When asked about how did they feel when 7 players were forced to withdraw from India Open after being tested positive for COVID-19, Setiawan/Ahsan a.k.a “the Daddies” said they were really concerned about the issue as well.
“I’ll try to follow the health protocol as much as possible and I will try to stay inside my hotel room after the match,” said Setiawan.
In men’s singles, Malaysia’s World No. 60 Ng Tze Yong successfully exacted revenge for his loss to Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in the quarter-final of the 2021 Irish Open. Ng came back from dropping the first game to win 9-21, 21-8, 21-16 on Friday. The unseeded Ng is set to take on the No. 3 seed Lakshya Sen of India in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the reigning World Champion, Loh Kean Yew of Singapore continued his hot momentum into 2022 by outlasting Sergey Sirant of Russia 21-16, 21-13 to set up a semi-final encounter with Brian Yang of Canada. Interestingly, both Loh and Yang arrived in New Delhi from Dubai after spending slightly more than a week sparring with the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist – Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
In the mixed doubles competition, the No. 1 seeds Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing will set up an all Malaysian semi-final match against compatriots and No. 3 seeds Chen Tang Jie/Peck Yen Wei. However, another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon/Valeree Siow put up a strong challenge, but not good enough to beat No. 2 seeds Rodion Alimov/Alina Davletova of Russia, losing 14-21, 13-21.
