Liek Hou who is here with the mission of defending the gold and Fareez must first show their prowess by defeating their respective opponents to secure a place in the semifinals at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.

Liek Hou will continue the competition in Group A by taking on home favourite Meril Loquette, tomorrow after easily burying Polish player Bartlomiej Mroz 21-10, 21-6 in 26 minutes during today’s opening round action.

Fareez’s awesome 21-14, 21-18 victory against second seeded Fang Jen-Yu from Taiwan, can serve as the best tonic for the Malaysian when facing world No 3, Dheva Anrimusthi from Indonesia in a Group B match.

However, only men’s singles player SL4 (physical disability) Amin Burhanuddin and Noor Azwan Noorlan-Ikhwan Ramli who played in the men’s doubles event WH1-2 (physical disability) have managed to secure their semifinal spots.

Amin started his campaign on the wrong foot when he lost 17-21, 21-15, 22-20 to Indian player, Sukant Kadam in a Group B match while Noor Azwan-Ikhwan fell to Japanese pair Daiki Kajiwara-Hiroshi Murayama 17-21, 21-13, 21-16 in a Group B meeting.

National cycling champion, Mohamad Yusof Hafizi Shaharuddin failed to meet the target of at least advancing to the final after being stranded in the qualifying round of the 3,000m individual pursuit men C1 (physical disability) finishing in fifth place with a time of 3:55.254 seconds.

Hangzhou 2022 Para Asian Games silver medalist Lee Chee Hoong who played in Group E of the BC2 men’s individual event was beaten 2-11 by Bintang Herlangga from Indonesia while Abdul Razzaq Abdul Rahman received the same fate, losing to Great Britain’s representative, Stephen McGuire, 0-8 during the men’s BC4 Group C action.