Lee Cheuk Yiu advanced to top 8 while Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet stopped in second round

Lee Cheuk Yiu advanced to top 8 of “YONEX-SUNRISE Hong Kong Open 2018” Men’s Singles event after defeating Danish player Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus. As medal hope Mixed Doubles pair Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet and Women’s Singles player Chueng Ngan Yi stopped in the second round, Lee Cheuk Yiu became the only player left in the tournament.

Benefitted from Shi Yuqi’s withdrawal, Lee Cheuk Yiu walked over to top 16 and played against the Danish player Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus who complaint about China player fixing results. Lee cheered by the audience, was obviously in better form than his opponent. After taking 5 points in the early stage, he continued to expand his advantage and eventually won 21:12. Although Vittinghus has adjusted his tactic, Lee still managed to take the victory 23: 21 after 2 deuces.

Lee Cheuk Yiu said, ‘I didn’t have the excitement like two years ago. I was promoted because Shi Yuqi withdrew in the first round. I know have to control my emotion after my victory over Tin Hou Wei two years ago and the champion title of New Zealand Open. My target now is to keep winning.’ In quarter finals, Lee will meet Sameer Verma of India.

Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet, Hong Kong’s leading Mixed Doubles pair and third seeds in the tournament wasted a 3:1 advantage at the beginning of the first game. The Indonesian pair Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Widjaja scored 4 points and took back the lead, winning the game by 21:16. In second game, Tang/Tse’s performance has improved, striking 9 points in a row and snatched the game 21:14. However, their misunderstandings and misjudgments in the last game cost them the victory and eventually lost by 15:21.

Both players were disappointed. Tang said, ’It is disappointing. I think our mentality is not good enough and it affected our result.’ Suffered from left shoulder injury, Tse Ying Suet admitted it affected her performance, ‘I injured my left shoulder on the first day of the tournament. But I wanted to do my best at home even I couldn’t really play. I don’t want to disappoint the fans. However, I can’t hold on to it all the way through the third game.’ The two won a silver medal in the Asian Games this year, ranking a new high in the world. Looking forward to the coming season, they hope to improve their strength and power and then decide their plan to prepare for the Olympics.

Cheung Ngan Yi couldn’t hold on to her advantage of winning the first game over world number one player Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 21:17 and lost the match by 16:21, 9:21 in the second round of Women’s Singles. Other major results: world number one Japanese Kento Momato beat his fellow Kanta Tsuneyama 17:21, 21:17, 21:16 in Men’s Singles. No.7 seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan won in straight games over Gao Fangjie of China in Women’s Singles. However, No.3 seed Pusarla Sindhu of India was eliminated by Sung Ji Hyun of Korea 24:26, 20:22.