Bangkok: Indonesia’s men’s doubles legend Hendra Setiawan and his new partner Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia won their first match at the Thailand Masters Grand Prix Gold in straight sets 21-16, 21-17 against Altof Barriq/Reinard Dhanriano of Indonesia on Wednesday.
“We lifted the shuttlecocks too much in the first set, we then changed the strategy and it worked. Furthermore, our opponents also made a lot of unforced errors that granted us some easy points,” said Setiawan.
The No. 5 seeds Setiawan and Tan will face reigning Malaysia Masters champions Berry Angriawan/Hardianto Hardianto in the second round.
Malaysia’s No. 4 seeds men’s doubles pair Hoon Thien How/Teo Kok Siang and No. 8 seeds Low Juan Shen/Chooi Kah Ming also advanced to the second round. Hoon/Teo will play Hiroki Okamura/Masayuki Onodera of Japan next, while Low/Chooi will take on Tinn Isriyanet/Kittisak Namdash on Thursday.
No. 6 seed Soniia Cheah became the sole Malaysian women’s singles player that cruised into the second round. She is scheduled to meet Chen Su Yu of Taiwan in the next round.
Meanwhile, home favorite and women’s singles top seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan safely through to the second round. She needed only 49 minutes to dispatched unseeded Japanese player Natsuki Nidaira 21-16, 21-17 on Wednesday.
Men’s singles No. 1 seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk also cruised past fellow teammate Ruttanapal Oupthong 21-16, 21-18 to set up a second round clash with Androw Yunanto of Indonesia.
