Tze Yong goes down fighting in world meet

World number 42 Tze Yong, who is making his debut in the world meet, went down fighting 9-21, 21-10, 19-21 to Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin in a one hour and 10-minute battle at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Tze Yong, who won the men's singles silver medal at the recent Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, showed great fighting spirit to bounce back to take the second game after losing the first, but he could not turn the tide against the world number 33 in the decider.

Meanwhile, national women's singles ace S. Kisona fell at the first hurdle when she went down 10-21, 17-21 to world number 80 Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam.

There was better luck for another women's singles shuttler, Soniia Cheah as she began her campaign with a hard-fought 21-19, 21-18 win over world number 44 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia.

Soniia, who is ranked 40th in the world, can expect a torrid time next as she will be up against fourth seed and 2020 Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei of China.

National women's doubles pair Anna Ching Yik Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing lived up to expectations when they defeated Germans Stine Kuespert-Emma Moszczynski 21-13, 21-15 in 39 minutes.

Anna-Mei Xing will take on ninth seeds Jeong Na Eun-Kim Hye Jeong of South Korea in the second round tomorrow.