BANGKOK: Two Malaysian men’s doubles pairs advanced to the quarter-final of the 2024 Thailand Open Badminton championships after winning their respective second-round matches held today.
In the action at the Nimibutr Stadium, Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri became the first representatives of the country to move into the quarter-final after easily defeating Thailand’s Pharanyu Kaosamaang-Worrapol Thongsa-nga 21-17, 21-10 in 33 minutes.
Hon Jiang-Muhammad Haikal will face Ming Che Lu-Tang Kai Wei from Chinese Taipei who defeated South Korean pair Kim Young Hyuk-Wang Chan 23-21, 18-21 and 21-14 in a three-set encounter.
The country’s rising men’s doubles pair, Junaidi Arif-Yap Roy King became the second pair to check into quarter-final after beating Danish pair Daniel Lundgaard-Mads Vestergaard in straight sets 21-14 and 21-13.
Junaidi-Roy King will face top-seeds in the tournament Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty from India, who advanced to the next round after defeating Chinese pair Xie Hao Nan-Zeng Wei Han 21-16 and 21-11.
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When met after the match, Junaidi said they will play according to their game plan and will not put themself under too much pressure for tomorrow’s game.
“We are the underdog against the top-seeded pair and they are the ones who should feel the pressure. So, we just want to enjoy our game here and make less unforced errord and hopefully enough for us to win the match,“ he told Bernama here today.
He shared that their hope is to enter at least the semi-final stage in every tournament they play and it is still the same for this tournament.
However, Hon Jian said he and his partner will continue with their attacking game against Che Lu-Kai Wei in the quarter-final tomorrow.
“We always prefer attacking game rather than defensive and that is our game plan for tomorrow. We hope to enter the semi-final in this tournament to bring the momentum into our home tournament, the Malaysia Masters next week,“ he said.
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Meanwhile, Thailand’s top-seeded women’s doubles pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai, the tournament’s top-seed in the women’s singles Han Yue of China and world number 5 men singles player Kodai Naraoka of Japan, all safely marched into the quarterfinals after winning their respective matches.
Home favourite, Jongkolphan-Rawinda defeated Keng Shu Liang-Zhang Chi of China 21-18, 16-21 and 21-10 in 62 minutes, world number 7 Chinese women’s singles Han beat Ashmita Chaliha of India 21-15, 12-21 and 21-12 in 48 minutes while Kodai was pushed to the limit by Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong before winning 21-11 15-21 and 20-22 in an hour and 22 minutes.
