KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 – Malaysia’s campaign in the men’s singles at the Super 1000 Indonesia Open (USD850,000) in Denpasar, Bali has ended with the exit of professional Liew Daren in the first round on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Malaysia’s best hope Lee Zii Jia was also a first round casualty when he lost 21-13, 23-25, 16-21 to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke.
The Dane had also beaten the seventh ranked Malaysian in last week’s Indonesia Masters.
Liew Daren, a former Thomas Cupper went out in straight games to Indonesia’s Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie who won 21-14, 21-15.However, there were smiles in the Malaysian camp when two women’s doubles pairs Vivian Hoo-Lim Chiew Sien and Lee Meng Yean-Yap Cheng Wen came through three games to advance to the second round.
Meng Yean-Cheng Wen slogged for 79 minutes against Danish pair Alexandra Boje-Mette Poulsen to prevail 21-12, 19-21, 26-24.
They face a tougher hurdler for a place in the quarter-finals as they will have Bulgarian Stoeva sisters Gabriela and Stefani.
The fifth seeded Bulgarians, known for their hard hitting game ousted India’s Ashwini Ponnappa-N. Sikki Reddy 29-27, 21-18.
Vivian-Chiew Sien are also up against a seeded pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai. The Thais, who are the third seeds, had a first round bye.
Another Malaysian pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah cleared their first round hurdle on Tuesday with a 22-20, 21-19 win over Spain’s Clara Azurmendi-Beatriz Corales.
The Malaysians will meet Indonesians Febriana Dwi Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi in the second round.
It was the end of the road for mixed doubles Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See after a 21-18, 21-12 defeat to Japan’s Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino.
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