Badminton: Tang Jie-Ee Wei pass high pressure test to advance into third round

PETALING JAYA: Young mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (pic) rose to the occasion to out-play Hong Kong combination Reginald Lee Chun Hei-Ng Tsz Yau to storm into the third round at the Word Championships in Copenhagen yesterday.

Tang Jie-Ee Wei, making their world meet debut, overcame the Hong Kong pair 21-19, 21-9 in 36 minutes.

The Malaysian pair stayed calm despite the enormous pressure from Chun Hei-Tsz Yau in the first game and it was plain sailing in the second game for them.

Having lost to the Hong Kong pair in the Singapore Open in June, Tang Jie said they were prepared to overcome them this time.

They will meet French pair Thom Gicquel-Delphine Delrue of France, who overcame Marcus Ellis-Lauren Smith of England 21-18, 21-13, in the third round today.

“We have played them before and are aware of what they can do and we focused on our game plan today (yesterday),” said Tang Jie.

“We are keeping our feet firmly on the ground but at the same time, there is no limit and we want to keep motivating ourselves for a bigger achievement.”

Ee Wei was also glad things are working well for them and having already won the Orleans and Taiwan Opens this year, they want to give it their best shot in the third round today.

“We are very happy to win the match today and we want to just keep going and fight all the way,” said Ee Wei.

However, it was the end of the road for Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing who lost 15-21, 18-21 to Supak Jomkoh-Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand yesterday.

However, Malaysia will have another pair in the third round as independent combination Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie cleared the second round hurdle on Tuesday.

The husband-and-wife pair of Soon Huat-Shevon defeated Iliyan Sotynov-Hristomira Sotynov of Bulgaria in 21-11, 21-8 to secure a meeting against Jiang Shenbang-Wei Yaxin of China today.

Meanwhile, women’s doubles pair Anna Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing ended their campaign in the second round when they lost 13-21, 11-21 to Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai yesterday.