Malaysia’s Arif Junaidi-Yap Roy King completed the country’s men’s doubles charge into the last 16 of the Badminton World Championships in New Delhi, India, after securing an impressive win late last night.
The world No. 19 pair stunned Indonesia’s rising combination Raymond Indra-Nikolaus Joaquin, ranked 12th in the world, 21-16, 21-19 in 36 minutes in the second round.
The victory was also Arif-Roy King’s first against the Indonesian pair, with the two combinations having never previously met on the international circuit.
They now face a much tougher challenge in the third round today against home favourites and world No. 5 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.
Arif-Roy King have struggled against the Indian duo, losing all four of their previous encounters.
However, the Malaysians, who were formed as part of the national coaching team’s experiment to split and reshuffle several existing partnerships, produced a confident display against Indra-Joaquin.
If they can maintain the same momentum, Arif-Roy King could once again spring an upset against their higher-ranked Indian opponents.
Besides Arif-Roy King, Malaysia will have three other men’s doubles pairs in the last 16 — Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s women’s singles representative Wong Ling Ching bowed out in the second round after losing 18-21, 10-21 to Japan’s world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi in a 36-minute match.
Ling Ching’s defeat also means Malaysia no longer has representatives in either the men’s or women’s singles events in the third round.
