NATIONAL professional men’s doubles Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani propelled to a career high when they snared the China Open by defeating a host pair in Changzhou today.
The victory at the Super 1,000 World Tour tournament is a major conquest for the national duo so far after emerging as the Japan Open champion, last month.
In today’s final, the world number 12 pair, who were seeded seventh in the tournament, were not given an easy path by He Ji Ting-Ren Xiang Yu when they lost 13-21 in the first set.
However, Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin bounced back to win the next two sets 21-12, 21-17 over the world seventh ranked pair.
As the champion of the China Open, Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin took home the winning prize of US$148,000 (RM622,361.58).
The outstanding achievement also put Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin as the second national men’s doubles pair to clinch the China Open title after the last time by the legendary pair of Datuk Seri Jalani-Datuk Razif Sidek in 1989.
For the record, at the end of last month, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) announced that it accepted Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin’s application to turn professional from Sept 1.