Malaysia’s No 1 mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying are certainty for the Rio Olympics and Malaysian badminton fans are sure to expect much from them in next month’s Malaysia Open.
On Thursday the world ranked No 13 marched into the quarter-finals in the USD120,000 SKYCITY New Zealand Grand Prix Gold in Auckland and their good performance augurs well for the pair.
Peng Soon-Liu Ying came through a three-set win over Australians Matthew Chau-Gronya Somerville with a 21-16, 18-21, 21-16 win in the second round in 45 minutes. In the first round the Malaysians scored a 22-20, 21-15 win over Taiwan’s Chang Ko-chi-Chang Hsin-tien,
The Malaysian pair is assured of a place in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. Their ranking is expected to improve further if they can the momentum in Auckland. The top 16 pairs in the world will qualify for the Olympics.
Back to back defeats in the recent German Open and the Yonex All-England Open in the first round jolted Peng soon-Liu Ying but their good performance in Auckland augurs well.
The Malaysian Open to be held at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam from April 5-10 will see Peng Soon-Liu Ying, who are unseeded, face Indonesia’s Ricky Widianto-Puspita Richi Dili in the first round in the top half of the draw.
China’s Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei are the top seeds and are in the same half with Peng Soon-Liu Ying.
The seedings for mixed doubles
- Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlai (China)
- Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir (Indonesia)
- Liu Cheng-Bao Yixin (China)
- Ko Sung-hyun-Kim Ha-na (Korea)
- Xu Chen- Ma Jin (China)
- Joachim Fischer Nielsen-Christina Pedersen (Denmark)
- Chris Adcock-Gabrielle Adcock (England)
- Praveen Jordan-Debby Susanto (Indonesia)
