Wei Nan stayed the course to hand Kepong BC their first win of the season when they beat Petaling BC 12-9 on the fifth matchday of the Resorts World Genting Purple League 2015 here at the Sport Arena@Sentosa.
Kepong, who had fallen to defending champions Muar City BC in their season opener two days ago, had to fight for every point and where it took the final men singles of the evening to give them the well-deserved victory.
Wei Nan, the Hong Kong veteran and a previous winner of the Dutch Open, held his nerves against Petaling’s Kenichi Tago, the 2014 Thomas Cup winner to win his tie 3-1.
After taking the first two sets 11-9, 11-6, Wei Nan faltered in the third 6-11 before recovering to win the final set 11-9 to at once give Kepong the win.
“Definitely, we put up a much better performance than how we did against Muar City two days ago. The overall performance of the players was good,” said Kepong head coach Muhammad Shahril Suwandi after the win.
“Actually, the game against Petaling today was 50-50 but we had slightly better preparation which contributed to our win.
“We will have a team meeting after this to re-strategise how we can approach the next round of matches. There will not be any drastic changes for sure but just to improve on the overall tactics.”
Petaling took to the opener confidently with Chen Tang Jie taking close to an hour before he was able to win the first men’s single with a score of 3-2 after beating Kepong’s Ai Wei Jian 11-9, 10-11, 11-10, 7-11 and 11-8.
But that victory failed to ignite the campaign for Petaling BC when they lost the women’s singles and also the mixed doubles to hand Kepong the 8-5 overall lead going into the last two games of the afternoon.
In the women singles, Kepong’s Deng Xuan beat Ana Rovita 11-9, 11-5 and 11-7 while in the mixed doubles, Mei Qi Li-Reginal Lee Chun Hei were stretched the distance before they were able to overcome Ardiansyah-Devi Tika 10-11, 11-10, 7-11, 11-10 and 11-7.
But Petaling then fought back in the men’s doubles to close the gap to just 8-9 when Fernando Kurniawan-Shia Chun Kang beat Ong Jian Guo-Woon Man Chun 9-11, 11-10, 11-9 and 11-6.
The decisive men’s singles then turned the game to Kepong’s favour with Wei Nan the toast of the afternoon.
In the meantime, Nusajaya BC showed that they are serious about winning the title this year after they smashed to an exhilarating 15-1 win over a hapless Kajang BC.
Nusajaya had crushed Petaling Jaya BC 11-8 in the first game of the season on 4 November and where after the win this morning, ensured them the place at the top albeit temporarily of the Purple League standings.
And this morning, Nusajaya was in no compromising mood as they did not even drop a single game winning all their matches easily.
Nusajaya had conceded only one set in the first game of the men’s singles when Tan Teck Han edged Muhammad Iqram 3-1 (10-11, 11-3, 11-8 and 11-6) in a battle that lasted slightly over half an hour.
From then on, it was smooth sailing for the southern-based team as they then went on to win all their remaining games easily.
Defending champions Muar City BC will take on Petaling Jaya BC in the final game of the evening.
