Malaysia Masters: Thrillers on Opening Day
It was an extraordinarily intense opening day at the PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2022, particularly in men’s doubles. Indeed, the opening round saw a faceoff between champions of the last two HSBC BWF World Tour events…
· DEV SUKUMAR
It was an extraordinarily intense opening day at the PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2022, particularly in men’s doubles. Indeed, the opening round saw a faceoff between champions of the last two HSBC BWF World Tour events – Indonesia Open winners Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi against Malaysia Open winners Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi.
There were other contests that were as competitive: Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen against Choi Sol Gyu/Kim Won Ho; Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik versus Akira Koga/Taichi Saito, and Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto against Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin – who just last Saturday were playing the semifinals of the Malaysia Open.
As expected, the clash between Liu/Ou and Hoki/Kobayashi went down the wire. The Chinese had two match points which the Japanese saved and then celebrated wildly after they pulled off the win at 21-14 22-24 22-20.