Sports -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 20, 2003 18:27 PM Six Malaysians Advance To Second Round SINGAPORE, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- Six of the 12 Malaysian singles players overcame their opponents in the first round of the Yonex Sunrise Singapore Open 2003 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, here Wednesday. The six Malaysian shuttlers who made it were Wong Choong Hann, Sairul Amar Ayob, Lee Tsuen Seng, Roslin Hashim, Ong Ewe Hock and Lee Chong Wei. Choong Hann easily beat Shoji Sato from Japan 15-6, 15-13 while Roslin beat Thailand's Boonsak Polsana 15-5, 15-9. However, Sairul Amar Ayob had to go into rubber set before beating opponent Agus Hariyanto from Hong Kong 15-9, 14-17, 15-8. The other six Malaysians who lost in the preliminaries were Muhd Hafiz Hashim, Yong Hock Kin, K.Yogendran, Yeoh Kay Bin Kuan Beng Hong and Ismail Saman. All England champion Muhd Hafiz lost to China's Chen Hong 15-11, 17-14 although the Malaysian had beaten Cheng Hong three times previously. Muhd Hafiz had beaten Chen Hong at the Yonex All England Open 2003 (14-17, 10-15) Busan Asian Games 2002 (7-15, 15-11, 5-15) and the Japan Open 2002 (7-4, 2-7, 7-0, 2-7 and 4-0) while Chen Hong had defeated Hafiz in the Malaysian Open 2001 (7-3, 2-7, 7-3 and 7-1). Muhd Hafiz started well leading Chen Hong 5-0 before the Chinese overtook him at 6-5 and then continued to win 15-11 in the first set. Muhd Hafiz said he had planned to win the first set but made minor errors while Cheng Hong played a fast game. In the second set, Chen Hong continued to dominate the game although Muhd Hafiz managed to catch up at 10-10 before losing 14-17 to the Chinese opponent. -- BERNAMA
Only Choong Hann and Lee TS left. Ong Ewe Hock almost created upset with Xia but it was not to be in the end. Lee Chong Wei tried his best but fell to Lee HI in the end, commendable effort though. The other Malaysian Juniors did not really make an impactl.
