Winning debut for Pearly-Thinaah at All-England

KUALA LUMPUR: Swiss Open champions Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and the country's top men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia cleared their first round obstacles at the All-England badminton tournament, early today.

Despite making their debuts in the tournament, upcoming women's doubles pair Pearly-Thinaah displayed another stunning performance to beat world number eight Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajonglai of Thailand 21-17, 23-21 at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham.

The world number 22 will next face hosts Jessica Hopton-Jenny Moore, who had a walkover against another Malaysian pair Teoh Mei Xing-Yap Ling, in the second round, according to the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) official website.

"It is really a surprise and unexpected win for us. I think we played quite well in parts and our communication was strong and believed in each other, so really happy for today. Need to reduce our simple mistakes and be more consistent in the next match," Pearly said.

Thinaah chipped in saying: "Really very excited and happy to participate in this major tournament and to win our first match I think was really good for both of us.

"(The) main thing now is to focus on each game and each point because each point is valuable for us. Yeah, we are going on a good momentum, (and) we hope to maintain this pace," she said.

Meanwhile, world number 10, Zii Jia ousted unseeded Brian Yang of Canada 21-13, 21-10 to set up a clash against Danish shuttler Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.

Independent men's doubles pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong also progressed after downing Germans Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel 21-11, 21-18.

World number one from Japan, Kento Momota, in his first tournament since his road accident after playing in the 2020 Malaysian Masters over a year ago, defeated Parupalli Kashyap of India 21-13, 22-20.

Earlier, the start of the 111th edition of the prestigious tournament was delayed for five hours following a number of positive and inconclusive COVID-19 test results.

The Indonesian squad was forced to withdraw for contact tracing after a passenger in the team's flight tested positive. They are now required to undergo a 10-day quarantine.

Other 1st round results

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(Note: Malaysians unless stated; [ ] denotes seeding)

Men's singles:

H.S. Prannoy (IND) bt Liew Daren 21-10, 21-10

Women's singles:

[5] P.V. Sindhu (IND) bt Soniia Cheah 21-11, 21-17

[8] Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA) bt S. Kisona 21-6, 21-7

Men's doubles:

Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi bt M.R. Arjun-Dhruv Kapila (IND) 21-13, 21-12

Mathias Christiansen-Niclas Nohr (DEN) bt Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong 21-16, 21-19

Mixed doubles:

Niclas Nohr-Amalie Magelund (DEN) bt Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See 21-13, 21-14

[6] Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing bt Takuro Hoki-Nami Matsuyama (JPN) 21-13, 21-13

Cheng Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei bt Gregory Mairs-Jenny Moore (ENG) 21-13, 18-21, 21-18

-- BERNAMA