After posting a convincing 21-10, 21-6 against Polish shuttler, Bartlmiej Mroz yesterday, Liek Hou, who is also the last edition’s gold medalllist, needed only 32 minutes to see off France’s Meril Loquette, 21-10, 21-16 in his second Group A tie held at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
The world No 1 shuttler admitted that after winning comfortably in the opening set, a few unforced errors and the strong drift on the court had affected his momentum – allowing the Frenchman to save seven points – before eventually winning the game.
The eight-time world champion now hopes that he can continue his rhythm to beat his final opponent in Group A, Suryo Nugroho of Indonesia, tomorrow, and head to the last four as the group champion.
“I need to improve my game because I expect a tough match tomorrow. Today, my game was delayed, which left me tired from waiting, but in the end, I’m satisfied with the win,” he told Bernama at the mixed zone.
Meanwhile, world No 4 Fareez continued his stellar run here by upsetting Dheva Anrimusthi of Indonesia, ranked third, in the Group B action.
Even sweeter is the fact that the 28-year-old crawled back after losing 14-21 in the opening set before taking the next two sets, 21-19, 21-19, in 75 minutes.
Fareez, who pulled off a surprise win over second seed Fang Jen-Yu of Taiwan, 21-14, 21-18, will round up the group stage against Taiyo Imai of Japan next.
In the men’s singles SL4 (physical impairment) Amin Burhanuddin brushed aside the challenge from Siripong Teamarrom, 21-14, 22-20 in Group B, following a rubber set loss to Sukant Kadam of India, 21-17, 15-20, 20-22, yesterday.
In the meantime, national wheelchair-bound player, Ikhwan Ramli went down fighting against South Korea’s Jeong Jaegun, 23-25, 21-17, 13-21 in Group B action of the men’s singles WH1 (physical impairment).
On the other hand, Noor Azwan Noorlan, who played in men’s singles WH2 (physical impairment) endured a similar outcome, losing to Chile’s Jaime Aranguiz 15-21, 13-21.
Earlier, Noor Azwan-Ikhwan’s challenge in men’s doubles WH1-2 (physical impairment) ended early as they suffered back-to-back losses in Group B action, this time against Qu Zi Mo-Mai Jianpeng from China, 21-16, 21-6, after going down to Japanese duo, 21-17, 13-21, 16-21 in the opening match yesterday.