KUALA LUMPUR, Mac 3 – Top seeds, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying made it tough upon themselves before prevailing in a three-game battle against Thailand’s Nipitphon Phuangphuapet-Benyapa Aimsaard for a 21-15, 15-21, 21-19 win in the opening round of the Yonex Swiss Open Badminton Championship in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday.
The Rio Olympics silver medal winners, however, used their vast experience to down the Thai scratch pair in 53 minutes and will next face the fast-improving French pair Ronan Labar-Anne Tran who knocked out Malaysian youngsters Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See 21-19, 21-17 in a 39-minute match.
Fourth seeds Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie also got off to a winning start. The pair, dumped from the national squad last month, needed only 33 minutes for a 21-18, 21-14 win over French pair Eloi Adam-Margot Lambert. For a place in the quarter-finals Soon Huat-Shevon will play Danes, Christine Busch-Rasmus Espersen.
Another seeded Malaysian pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, who are now carving out a career as professionals after being dropped from the national squad, also advanced. The fifth seeds downed Indonesians Adnan Maulana-Mychelle Crhstine Bandaso in straight games 21-13, 21-12 in 28 minutes.
They next play Germany’s Jones Ralfy Jansen-Kilasu Ostermeyer – 21-12, 21-11 winners over Switzerland’s Yann Orteu-Aline Muller in the first round.
Young Malaysian pair failed to get past the first round as they fell in straight games 12-21, 17-21 to French sixth seeds Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue in a 32-minute encounter.
India’s hopes Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa pulled off an upset with a 21-18, 21-10 win over Indonesian second seeds Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.
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