SINGAPORE — Elimination was the order of the day for local shuttlers as the main draw of the 2013 Li-Ning Singapore Open got underway yesterday.
Apart from the mixed doubles pairing of Yao Lei and Terry Yeo who defeated higher-ranked Japanese duo Miyuki Maeda and Hirokatsu Hashimoto in straight games, there was little to cheer for fans of local shuttlers.
The Republic’s two representatives in the women’s singles were both ousted. Xing Aiying, who would have hoped to repeat last year’s run to the semi-finals, was undone by Japan’s Saori Imabeppu 21-19, 21-16.
Gu Juan’s task was always going to be hard, going up against second seed Saina Nehwal of India who has genuine claims on the title this Sunday. Gu duly lost 21-14, 23-21 to Nehwal in a 40-minute encounter.
It was not a happy birthday for Vanessa Neo as the 26-year-old crashed out of both the women’s and mixed doubles competition. Partnering Yao Lei, Neo lost her women’s doubles first-round match in the morning to Japan’s Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao 23-21, 21-15.
In the afternoon, Neo and her mixed doubles partner Danny Bawa Chrisnanta were defeated 21-16, 21-18 by South Korea’s Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na.
Neo was left rueing a missed opportunity to beat the Koreans, saying: “We led 14-10 in the second set because we created chances to win those points. But they caught up because we started to play defensively.
“Our opponents have really strong smashes and, because we changed our play, it gave them a chance to catch up.”
Other Singaporeans to be shown the exit door were Tan Zi Jian and Yuliana Dellis, who lost to Japanese Ryota Taohata and Naoko Fukuman (21-7, 21-6), and Terry Hee and Fu Mingtian, who lost to Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan and Vita Marissa (21-16, 22-20), both in mixed doubles.
In the women’s doubles, Elaine Chua and Yeo Jia Min found their Korean opponents Jang Ye Na and Kim So Young too strong, losing 22-20, 21-11. That left Yao and Yeo to carry Singapore’s flag for the rest of the US$200,000 (S$251,060) Super Series tournament, with Yeo lauding the achievement with his new mixed doubles partner.
“I’m very happy as it is the second tournament that we’ve played in as a doubles pairing and our first time getting through to the second round of the main draw,” he said.
“I think communication was the key to winning this game. We encouraged each other even through the bad shots and lost points, we told each other to go in for the next rally and get the points.”
The duo will face Hong Kong’s Lee Chun Hei and Chau Hoi Wah in the second round of the main draw today at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Selected results:
Men’s Singles:
Boonsak Ponsana (Tha) bt Zulfadli Zulkiffli (Mas) 21-12, 21-12
Du Peng Yu (Chn) bt Anand Pawar (Ind) 21-16, 21-13
Sai Preneeth (Ind) bt Hu Yun (Hkg) 21-9, 21-10
Women’s Singles:
Li Xuerui (Chn) bt Sashina Vignes Waran (Fra) 21-10, 21-14
Wang Yihan (Chn) bt Busanan Ongbumrungpan (Tha) 16-21, 21-12, 21-19
Wang Shixian (Chn) bt Yeon Ju Bae (Skr) 21-19, 21-19
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