MALAYSIA OPEN 2012 R32– Reversals of 1st round fortunes

Countless players had opposite fortunes to last week as they started off main draw action at the 2012 Maybank Malaysia Open Superseries.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

As it was last week in Korea, mixed doubles was once again a hotspot of upsets.  World Championship runners-up Chris Adcock / Imogen Bankier (pictured), perpetrators of the biggest upset last Wednesday, were on the receiving end this morning as they went down to fellow Brits Robertson/Wallwork in three.

The opposite was true in the case of Indonesia’s Rijal/Susanto also refused to go down early for a second Wednesday in a row, despite having to go up against higher-ranked Fuchs/Michels this time around.

The good news for the home team is that Bitburger Open champions and top Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying (pictured) were able to keep home hopes alive in the discipline with an upset of Japan Open winners Chen/Cheng of Chinese Taipei.

The good news for the home team just kept on coming as Tee Jing Yi will carry the Malaysian flag into the women’s singles second round as well.  She needed 8 game points to do it, but she held on to tie her match with India Open champion Porntip Buranaprasertsuk at one game apiece and went on to win it 16-21, 25-23, 21-10.

Another who was upset by one of Hong Kong’s lower-ranked players last week, Pi Hongyan, also scored her own upset in Malaysia today.  Pi took care of world #15 Sayaka Sato of Japan in two quick ones.

Denmark’s men’s singles got in on the action as well, as Du Pengyu, who took down the highest seed in men’s singles last Wednesday, became the latest victim of in-form Jan O. Jorgensen.  Meanwhile, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (pictured), who lost to lower-ranked Hu Yun last week, scored an upset over Korea’s Lee Hyun Il for a second January in a row.

While at last year’s Korea Open, the equivalent upset earned Vittinghus only an unsuccessful second qualifying match against Wang Zhengming, this year, he’s advanced to the second round against the formidable Chen Long.  Luckily for HK, Chen is another top player whom he has a history of troubling.

In women’s doubles, the reversal came for Korea’s Eom Hye Won / Jang Ye Na.  Fresh off a win at their home Grand Prix Gold last month, they were shown the exit in their home Superseries Premier by a lower-ranked Chinese pair.  This week, they roared back to beat Indonesia’s Greysia Polii / Meiliana Jauhari.  Like HK’s win over Lee, this particular upset has become a January ritual for Eom Hye Won, too.  She beat the same Indonesian pair at last year’s Korea Open, when playing with a former partner.

This new Korean pair actually has an outside shot at Olympic qualification, as they are around 20,000 points shy of the top 8 on just 8 tournaments.

The first day was not without its repeat upsetters and upsettees, of course.  A case in point is Thailand’s Prapakamol/Thoungthongkam.  Their second consecutive first-round exit was served up to them by Russia’s Nikolaenko/Sorokina, who had done the same to their compatriots Anugritayawon/Voravichitchaikul last Wednesday.

The Thais had lost last week to Japan’s Shintaro Ikeda / Reiko Shiota, of course.  But the Japanese themselves lost out to Thailand’s #3 pair Maneepong Jongjit / Savitree Amitrapai (pictured), who are once again the only Thai mixed pair left in the second round.

Meanwhile, several top players refused to go down early in consecutive weeks.  Zhang/Zhao in mixed doubles, Peter Gade, Taufik Hidayat, and Chen Long in men’s singles, and Koo/Tan in men’s doubles, all fended off lower-ranked challengers in straight games, while Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun needed three games but still made it past Germany’s Olga Konon to earn a shot at Li Xuerui.

Finally, the highest ranked competitors to be ousted on Day 1 of the main draw came late in the day.  First was Japan’s Miyuki Maeda / Satoko Suetsuna.  The women’s doubles third seeds provided an opening for still more local favourites as they lost out to Vivian Hoo / Woon Khe Wei in three.  Then came Ko Sung Hyun and Yoo Yeon Seong of Korea.  The men’s doubles 2nd seeds lost for the first time to Japan’s Endo/Hayakawa in three close games.

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