By Rizal Abdullah
Next month’s Malaysia Open Superseries Premier in Shah Alam is turning out to be a motivating factor for Malaysia’s No 1 mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying in their winning run in the New Zealand Open.
Peng Soon-Liu Ying on Friday marched into the semi-finals in the on-going USD120,000 SKYCITY New Zealand Grand Prix Gold in Auckland after defeating Indonesia’s Hafiz Faisal-Shell Devi Aulia in the quarter-finals 21-12, 21-11 in 30 minutes.
In the semi-finals on Saturday the Malaysians face a tough hurdle for a place in Sunday’s final as they are up against the strong Korean pair of Ko-Sung-hyun-Kim Ha-na, who are the top seeds and favourites for the title.
The Koreans dumped Japan’s Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino 17-21, 21-15, 25-23 in the quarter-finals.
“The good run in the New Zealand Open is motivating for us to do well in the Malaysian Open next month. We are not seeded but we will certainly draw inspiration from reaching the semi-finals in Auckland,” said Peng Soon.
In the Malaysian Open the Malaysians face Rickey Widianto-Puspital Richi Dili in the first round and are drawn in the bottom half. China’s Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei are the top seeds and are in the same half with Peng Soon-Liu Ying.
MIXED DOUBLES QUARTER-FINALS RESULTS
Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (Mas) beat Hafiz Faisal-Shella Devi Aulia (Ina) 21-12, 21-11
Ko Sung-hyun-Kim Ha-na (Kor) beat Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Jpn) 17-21, 21-15, 25-23
Shin Baek-cheol-Chae Yoo-jung (Kor) beat Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Nelakurihi Sikki Reddy (Ind) 21-14, 21-18
Zheng Siwei-Li Yin Hui (Chn) beat Yugo Kobayashi-Yuki Fukushima (Jpn) 21-15, 22-20
