On a day when Malaysia’s No 1 men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik crashed out of the Perodua Malaysia Masters with a below-par performance in the second round, it was a different story with Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi.
Aaron-Wooi Yik lasted only 26 minutes in their 15-21, 11-21 defeat to top seeds and world No 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo as the Indonesians maintained their supremacy over the Malaysians.
With the win, the Indonesians have now won all their four encounters against the Malaysian pair that carries the country’s hopes in the Tokyo Olympics.
“We blame ourselves for the defeat. Our expected game plan against the Indonesians did not materialize,” said Aaron on the defeat.
Wooi Yik added that the Indonesians ”took control of the match” and did not allow them to get into the game. “We are disappointed with ourselves.”
However, it was a different story for their former teammates Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi. The newly discarded pair showed that being out of the national squad has not diminished the fire in them.
Ranked No 19 in the world marched into the quarter-finals with another inspiring performance – knocking out No 8 seeds Han Chen Kai-Zhou Hao Dong of China in straight games 21-13-21-18 in 31 minutes.
For a place in the last eight, the Yew Sin-Ee Yi combination will be up against Korea’s Kim Gi Jung-Lee Yong Dae. The Koreans promoted to the main draw from the qualifying rounds upset fourth seeds Takeshi Kamura-Keigo Sonoda of Japan 21-15, 21-17.
In the first round, Yew Sin-Ee Yi beat India’s 12th ranked Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 21-15, 18-21, 21-15.
“Every win is important for us after our exit from the national squad as it is one way of attracting sponsors. It has been a good start and we aim to go as far as we can in our first tournament as professionals,” said Ee Yi. RIZAL ABDULLAH
