PETALING JAYA: Even the luggage delay could not
derail singles shuttler Liew Daren and men’s doubles pair Goh V Shem-Lim
Khim Wah from making superb starts at the German Open in Mulheim.
Daren and V Shem-Khim Wah arrived in Germany on Sunday but their baggage only arrived on Monday night.
But it didn’t matter as world No. 38 Daren, in particular, set out to
prove a point following a disappointing first-round loss in the
Malaysian Open last month.
On Tuesday, Daren clinically dispatched Frenchman Thomas Rouxel 21-12, 21-18 in the first round.
On Wednesday, the 27-year-old stepped it up a notch to send 11th seed Rajiv Ouseph of England packing 21-19, 21-19.
Daren will now meet India’s Arvind Bhat for a place in the
quarter-finals. Bhat was also in good shape as he dumped veteran third
seed Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-17, 16-21, 21-11.
Daren is the sole survivor after Misbun Ramdan Misbun and Mohd Arif Abdul Latif both lost their second round matches.
Ramdan was outclassed 14-21, 17-21 by Japan’s Takuma Ueda while Arif
blew a one-game advantage to lose 21-19, 14-21, 12-21 to Denmark’s
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.
Malaysian Open champions V Shem-Khim Wah also cleared their first
round despite struggling in patches as they disposed of Hong Kong’s Chan
Yun Lung-Lee Chun Hei 22-20, 23-21.
“The late arrival of our luggage affected our training sessions here
but there were no such problems once we stepped on court,” said V Shem.
“We’re definitely happy with our first round win and we’re looking
forward to improving on our performance in the next match.”
The pair, who are seeded seventh, will take on Japan’s Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata in the second round.
In other results on Wednesday, women’s doubles pair of Vivian
Hoo-Woon Khe Wei also enjoyed a flying start after thrashing Belgium’s
Steffi Annys-Severine Corvilain 21-7, 21-10 to set up a second round
meeting with Taiwan’s Cheng Chi-ya-Wu Ti-jung.
“It was quite an easy match for us but it’ll be tougher against the Taiwanese ... we’ve never faced them before,” said Vivian.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s top-ranked active pair, world No. 8 Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong enjoyed an easy start at the German Open.
The second seeds who were also far from impressive this year,
suffering first round defeats in the Korean and Malaysian Opens, were
hardly troubled en route to beating Denmark’s Niclas Nohr-Nikolaj
Overgaard 21-17, 21-16 in the first round on Wednesday (early Thursday
morning in Malaysia).
Independent pair Gan Teik Chai-Ong Soon Hock also made the second
round after battling past Germany’s Peter Kaesbauer-Josche Zurwonne
18-21. 21-17, 21-15, and will meet fourth seeds Tsai Chia-hsin-Lee
Sheng-mu for a place in the quarter-finals.
Mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Lai Pei Jing, who made the final of
the Austrian International Challenge last week, were brought back down
to Earth after losing tamely 12-21, 15-21 to third seeds Ko
Sung-hyun-Kim Ha-na of South Korea.
Sources: http://www.thestar.com.my/Sport/Badminton/2014/02/26/Malaysians-off-to-flying-start-in-German-Open/
