Men’s doubles shuttlers Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun were on fire at the World Championships in Paris early this morning, defeating top English pair Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in straight games to enter the quarter-finals.
The Malaysians won 21-18, 21-18 against the 14th ranked pair in just 35 minutes at the Adidas Arena to set up a clash with South Korea‘s world No 1 duo Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae.
The Koreans have beaten the Malaysians twice so far, at this year’s French Orleans Open and Japan Open.
Joining Wei Chong and Kai Wun in the last eight are men’s doubles pair and world No 2 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, women’s doubles aces Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, and mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin.
World No 3 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani were knocked out by Taiwan’s 18th ranked Lee Jhe Huei-Yang Po Hsuan despite having three match points at 20-17 in the decider.
The third seeds lost 22-20, 15-21, 23-21 in a match which lasted 50 minutes. It was their first defeat to the Taiwanese duo in four encounters.
Aaron-Wooi Yik escaped by the skin of their teeth in their three-match battle with spirited compatriots Arif Junaidi-Yap Roy King, defeating them 18-21, 21-18, 26-24 in 64 minutes.
The current top Malaysian pair, who were semi-finalists at last edition in 2023, were facing defeat in the decider but maintained their composure in a nail-biting finish to save three match points and book a quarter-final berth.
They will take on India’s world No 9 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty who beat China‘s world No 6 Liang Wei Kang-Wang Chang.
Pearly-Thinaah meanwhile swept aside Indonesia’s Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti 21-12, 21-11 in just 29 minutes to set up a quarter-final clash with Bulgarian sisters Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva.
The Stoevas defeated Japanese pair Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto 21-18, 20-22, 22-20 in the last 16.
Pang Ron-Su Yin will meet China‘s world No 2 pair Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin in the last eight while Tang Jie-Ee Wei take on India’s Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto.
The mixed doubles matches will be played this evening while the rest will take place early tomorrow morning Malaysian time.
