Free admission for opening day Men’s and Women’s top seeds reaching second round

The six-day 2023 VICTOR Hong Kong Open kicked off on Tuesday with free admission for the first day. Many badminton fans were attracted to the Hong Kong Coliseum, Hung Hom to support their star players. The men’s and women’s doubles top seeds started their campaign in the afternoon with both Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia and Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan making it through to the second round.

With free tickets on offer, many fans came to watch the world’s top two pairs in action. Of the fans, Mr Tse who used to buy tickets to watch the games, was delighted to have free seats which could provide very good views of enjoying men’s doubles’ speed and excitement. Another fan, Mr Wong was surprised to find free tickets for the main round, saying the move could help promote badminton and allow more Hong Kong people to know various badminton stars. Also, VICTOR set up specific sales counters for fans to buy equipment and check-in points for social media. There are also game booths for fans to enjoy AirBadminton.

In the men’s doubles, world number one Alfian and Ardianto were given little trouble before beating Su Ching Heng and Ye Hong Wei of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 21-18 but fourth seeds Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia struggled as they were stunned by world ranked 27th pair Keiichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi of Japan after two games 21-16, 25-23.

The Japanese also enjoyed success in the women’s doubles. Top seeds Matsumoto and Nagahara beat Vivian Hoo and Lim Chiew Sien of Malaysia in two games 21-14, 21-13 while their two other pairs also went through to the second round. Second seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota had an easy passage over Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wen Ching of Chinese Taipei with a 21-14, 21-11 victory while third seeds Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida came from behind to beat Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China 10-21, 21-15, 21-14.

Hong Kong, China also had two pairs started in the women’s doubles. Lui Lok Lok and Ng Wing Yung battled 74 minutes before beating Liu Chiao Yun and Wang Yu Qiao of Chinese Taipei 22-20, 18-21, 22-20 to reach the second round. Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam, however, found their Thai opponents Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard, the fifth seeds, too difficult to handle as the home pair lost 21-16, 21-14.