Hoo, Woon the only survivor in swiss Open GP Gold Badminton meet

The third seeded pair defeated Lin Xiao Min/Wu Fang Chien of Taiwan; winning in straight-sets 21-18 and 21-14 in the opening round of the tournament held at St. Jakobshalle Indoor Arena, according to Badminton World Federation (BWF) website www.bwfbadminton.org.

Hoo/Woon is slated to meet another Taiwanese pair of Chiang Kai Hsin/Hung Shih Han in the second round, later today after the latter defeated the scratch pair of Khairunnisa Imma Muthiah/Jenjira Stadelmann of Indonesia/Netherlands; 21-16 and 21-17 in another first round encounter.

The country's challenge in three other events -- men's singles and doubles and also the women's singles event -- fizzled out after the Malaysians were defeated by their respective opponents.

National men's doubles pair, Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi lost 26-28 and 18-21 to the 2017 All-England runner-up, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China while former national men's singles player, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim who teamed up with Mohd Razif Abdul Latif lost 8-21 and 9-21 to the sixth seeds, Mathias Christiansen/ David Daugaard of Denmark in the opening round match.

Malaysia's professional player, Tan Boon Heong who teamed up with former Olympics champion, Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, put up a stiff competition against the third seed, Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark before losing 13-21, 21-15 and 14-21 in the opening round.