Underdogs rule the day

On a perfect day for Singapore at the Badminton World Championships, all four of their singles and doubles representatives made it to the round of 16 after overcoming tricky opponents yesterday.

World No. 41 men's doubles pair Terry Hee and Loh Kean Hean were up first at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, stunning last year's bronze medallists Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.

Producing a stirring resolute display against their 10th-ranked opponents, they won 22-20, 22-20 to earn a showdown against India's 35th-ranked M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila today.

Hee said: "The pressure was on them, that's why maybe they under-performed, and we are very happy to come away with the win. Even though we are satisfied with our performance today, we hope we can produce better badminton and bigger upsets."

Admitting that he "didn't start well", Kean Hean added: "There were a lot of mistakes on my side and my shots were too soft. I tried to take more initiative to fight at the front and applied more pressure. I'm glad I managed to challenge myself to tweak something during the match although we were trailing and it worked."

They also upset 27th-ranked French brothers Christo and Toma Junior Popov in the first round.

Against Ong and Teo, who beat them in their only previous encounter at the 2017 SEA Games, Hee and Loh did well to keep the scores close. And even when their more illustrious opponents threatened to run away with the first game at 18-14 and later held a game point, Hee and Kean Hean kept their nerve to pinch the opener.

The second game followed in a similar vein as Ong and Teo raced to a 13-8 lead, only for the Singaporean duo to claw their way back with some outstanding defence and intelligent shot placements and seal the surprise win on their second match point.

Defending men's singles champion Loh Kean Yew is also through, after beating Tokyo 2020 semi-finalist Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-12, 11-21, 21-12. The world No. 8 produced a nine-point blitz in the first game and led 12-1 start in the decider to overcome his second-game blip and move on to the third round, where he will face Hong Kong's world No. 11 Angus Ng.

Kean Yew said: "In the second game, the draught was kind of strong on my side, so it took me a while to adjust to the conditions. "But overall, it was a good match for me, as Kevin played well also."

Hee returned to the court later with his wife Jessica Tan as the 32nd-ranked mixed doubles duo beat Japan's world No. 16s Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo 19-21, 21-11, 21-17.

The Commonwealth Games champions squandered a 17-11 lead in the opener and were down 7-4 in the second. Instead of crumbling, they came storming back with a series of good serves from Tan and Hee's aggressive play to pull away in the second game.

They had another handy 18-10 advantage, and this time they survived the local favourites' fightback to seal another memorable victory in an hour. They will face Hong Kong's world No. 7 and 2021 bronze medallists Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet.

Tan said: "We tried to focus on our own performance and consistency instead of the home support. Every win is satisfying in its own way, regardless of whether it is an upset or not.

"Now, we just want to focus on the next match. We will be underdogs again, and we will continue to fight and give our 100 per cent."

There was more good news as 80th-ranked women's pair Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong also progressed to the last 16 after their opponents, three-time silver medallists Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan, withdrew.

Jin and Wong will meet Chinese world No. 13s Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu next.