Chooi/Low Only Malaysian Survivors At China Masters

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- Malaysian men’s doubles pair, Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Shen are the only Malaysian players left standing at the China Masters Grand Prix Gold Badminton Championship after another national pair were shown the exit in the tournament at the Olympic Sports Centre in Jiangshu, China on Thursday. Chooi/Low, the seventh seeded pair, defeated the unheralded Taiwanese pair of Lin Shang Kai/Yang Po-Hsuan; winning in 21-11 and 21-18 in the second round, according to Badminton World Federation (BWF) website;www.bwfbadminton.org. They will face a mammoth task in the quarterfinals, on Friday against another Taiwanese pair, Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-Lin, after the top seeds defeated compatriots Lee Chia-Han/Tsai Chia Tsin; 21-15 and 23-21. Another Malaysian pair, Mohd Razif Abdul Latif/Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, however, failed to advance to the next round after losing in straight sets 14-21 and 14-21 to the scratch Malaysian/Indonesian pair, Tan Boon Heong/Hendra Setiawan in another second round match. The country’s challenge in the men’s singles, fizzled out on Wednesday after the Malaysians were defeated by their respective opponents in the preliminary round. Malaysia did not send any representatives in three other events – women’s singles and doubles and also the mixed doubles event– in the US$150,000 (RM659,699) tournament. --BERNAMA