Ng Tze Yong falls after 70-minute battle at BWF World Championships
COMMONWEALTH Games silver medallist Ng Tze Yong was among a host of eliminations on a tough morning for Malaysian shuttlers at the BWF World Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday (23 August).
The 22-year-old world No.42 - who defeated world champion Loh Kean Yew en route to his silver medal in Birmingham earlier this month - lost to Thailand's world No.33 Sitthikom Thammasin 9-21, 21-10, 19-21 after a 70-minute battle on Court Two of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Down 5-14 in the third game, Ng mounted a late fightback, winning eight consecutive points before tying the game at 19-all. However, Sitthikom managed to maintain his composure to take the final two points for the win.
The second day of the World Championships began with Malaysian women's doubles duo Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow succumbing 11-21, 13-21 to India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
The Indian duo will face another Malaysian pair in the round of 32 - Commonwealth Games gold medallists Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah, who earned a bye for the round of 64.
Women's singles player Kisona Selvaduray was also unsuccessful in her opening round, the Malaysian falling to Vietnam's Vu Thi Trang 10-21, 17-21.
In the afternoon, mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei were beaten 14-21, 21-12, 11-12 by China's fourth-seeded duo Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping.
Bright spots as Soniia Cheah, women's and mixed doubles pairs advance
There were some bright spots as the day progressed. Women's singles shuttler Soniia Cheah, ranked world No.40, defeated Indonesian world No.44 Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-19, 21-18 in her opening round. She next faces China's world No.4 Chen Yufei in the round of 32.
Women's doubles pair Anna Cheong and Teoh Mei Xing also advanced from their opening round, after a 21-13, 21-15 win over Germany's Stine Kuespert and Emma Moszczynski. They will play South Korea's ninth-seeded pair of Jeong Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong next.
And mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing, seeded eighth in the competition, thrashed Israel's Misha and Svetlana Zilberman 21-6, 21-5 to set up a round-of-16 tie with Japan's Kyohei Yamashita and Naru Shinoya.
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