PETALING JAYA, Jan 11 – Malaysian professional Soong Joo Ven demolished India’s Chirag Sen 21-8, 21-7 in the first round in the USD400,000 Yonex Sunrise India Open in New Delhi in the season’s opening BWF World Tour event on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Malaysian needed only 28 minutes at the K.D. Jadhav Hall in New Delhi to earn a second-round match against newly world champion Loh Kean Yew.
The 24-year-old Penang-born Kean Yew, needed 50 minutes to clear his first round hurdle to clinch a come-from-behind 16-21, 21-4, 21-14 win over Canadian Sheng Xiaodong.
Kean Yew had a fantastic season last year and also won the Dutch Open and the Hylo Open in Germany.
While Joo Ven celebrated, another Malaysian professional Cheam June Wei came unstuck against hard-hitting Russian Sergey Sirant who won a closely fought match 22-20, 21-18 in 43 minutes.
It was also a winning start for mixed doubles top seeds Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing who marched into the second round with an easy 21-10, 21-11 match in 25 minutes over India’s Pratik Ranade-Kanika Kanwal.
The Malaysians next face another Indian pair Siiddharth Jakhar-Mega Morchana Bora.
Another mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei also strolled into the second round by knocking out India’s M.R. Arjun-Treesa Jolly with a 21-11, 21-6 win.
The third seeded Malaysians face another Indian hurdle Sai Pratheek K.-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela next.
In the mixed doubles Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, seeded three, staved off India’s Ravikrishna PS-Sankar Udayakumar 21-91, 21-14 to advance. Their second round opponents are Indians Ukarsh Arora-Akshan Shetty.
Newly formed professional pair Nur Azriyn Ayub-Lim Khim Wah gave a good account of themselves before bowing out 21-13, 17-21, 15-21 to Indian sixth seeds M.R. Arjun-Dhruv Kapila.
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