PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttlers Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi are shaping up nicely ahead of the All-England in Birmingham next Tuesday.
Roy King-Arif pulled off an impressive 21-19, 21-18 victory over Taiwan’s world No. 9 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan in the quarter-finals of the Orleans Masters at the Palais des Sports to set up a meeting against China’s world No. 3 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang.
The world No. 18 pair extended their unbeaten streak over Jhe-huei-Po-hsuan to three matches after also toppling the latter in the Indonesian Masters in January and Malaysian Masters last May.
Roy King-Arif also reached the last four for the first time since the Malaysian tourney and their improvement is timely before they make their debuts in Birmingham.
National coaching director Rexy Mainaky was pleased with Roy King-Arif’s progress so far.
“It was a good performance from Roy King-Arif and a good win for them. They are progressing well so far,” said Rexy.
“As they progress, they will keep having chances to play against top pairs and this will improve their level further.”
Roy King-Arif initially struggled for form after breaking into the world’s top 32 last year but have found some consistency.
The pair suffered early round exits in the Malaysian Open and Indian Open in January but showed improvement by making it into the last eight in the Indonesian Masters and German Open last week.
Roy King-Arif are Malaysia’s only representatives left in Orleans after women’s doubles pairs Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee’s runs ended in the quarter-finals.
World No. 6 Pearly-Thinaah went down 15-21, 19-21 to China’s rising duo Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian while Mei Xing-Pei Kee lost out 13-21, 11-21 to South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong.
Pearly-Thinaah will next look to do better in the All-England where they will open their campaign against Taiwan’s Teng Chun-hsun-Yang Chu-yun.
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS
(Malaysians only)
Men’s singles: Nhat Nguyen (Irl) bt Lee Zii Jia 23-21, 21-7.
Men’s doubles: Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi bt Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan (Tpe) 21-19, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian (Chn) bt Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah 21-15, 21-19; Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong (Kor) bt Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee 21-13, 21-11.
Mixed doubles: Rehan Naufal-Gloria Emanuelle (Ina) bt Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin w.o.
