Manila: Malaysia’s World No. 9 men’s pair – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik survived a tough test at the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) on Tuesday when they battled to a three-set victory over their Chinese opponents – World No. 209 He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong.
Chia/Soh lost the first set 18-21 to He/Zhou but were able to force a decider by winning the second game 21-12.
The Chinese pair was able to come back from 10-14 to tie the third set at 14-14 before Chia/Soh held their nerve to run away with a 21-18 hard-fought victory. Chia/Soh will face Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Andy Kwek Jun Liang of Singapore in the second round.
The World No. 11 Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi also advanced to the second round by beating Chang Tak Ching/Yeung Ming Nok of Hong Kong 21-18, 21-17. Ong/Teo will take on World No. 22 Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan of Indonesia next.
Another Malaysian pair Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin was untroubled by Solomon Jr. Padiz/Julius Villabrille of the Philippines as they saw off the local pair 21-9, 21-14 in just 21 minutes.
Goh/Izzuddin will meet Kang Minhyuk/Kim Wonho of Korea in the second round.
Also advanced to the men’s doubles second round were Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun and they will take on Christian Bernardo/Paul John Pantig of the Philippines on Thursday.
However, there was a huge upset in the men’s doubles first-round action on Tuesday, where Indonesia’s reigning All England champions – Bagas Maulana/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri lost to Japan’s Akira Koga/Taichi Saito 21-18, 17-21, 17-21.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Korea Open mixed doubles winners – World No. 9 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, World No. 13 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, World No. 30 Chen Tang Jie/Peck Yen Wei have all entered the second round of BAC.
Tan/Lai will next take on Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto of India, Goh/Lai will play Yuki Kaneko/Misaki Matsutomo of Japan while Chen/Peck will meet the Tokyo Olympic champions – Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping of China in the second round.
