Hariyanto sets up Bao clash
Hong Kong's shuttlers suffered mixed fortunes at the world championships but were left satisfied as men's doubles duo of Liu Kwok-wa and Albertus Susanto Njoto reached the second round along with Agus Hariyanto in the men's singles.
After all of Hong Kong's entrants registered opening-day victories, coach Chan Chi-choi had to be content with a 50 per cent success rate as the SAR suffered their first defeats of the tournament at Anaheim's Arrowhead Pond centre.
In the women's doubles, the world's 44th-ranked pair Li Wing-Mui and Louisa Koon Wai-chee put up a brave fight before losing 15-8, 13-15, 15-5 to Taiwanese 12th seeds Chien Yu-chin and Cheng Wen-Hsing in the second round.
That was followed by a defeat in the mixed doubles for Koon and partner Liu, beaten 15-11, 15-10 by Danish ninth seeds Thomas Laybourn and Kamila Rytter Juhl.
But coach Chan Chi-choi understandably preferred to dwell on the positives in the men's singles and doubles on a day when the drafty conditions continued to cause problems.
'Overall we are satisfied,' Chan said. 'The players have adapted well to the wind and we won the matches that we were expected to win. So far, so good.'
Liu and Njoto, who have reached the last 16 in their previous appearances at the world championships in 2001 and 2003, stayed on course to emulate that feat by sweeping aside England's Paul Trueman and Ian Palethorpe in straight games.
Liu and Njoto won 15-6, 15-4 and now face Japanese pair Toru Matsumoto and Keishi Kawaguchi in the next round.
Indonesian-born singles player Hariyanto joined Hong Kong ninth seed Ng Wei in the second round after downing Japan's Yuichi Ikeda, the world number 44, 15-2, 15-5.
Hariyanto caused shockwaves in 2001 in Seville when he beat China's Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng en route to the quarter-finals. Hariyanto also reached the last 16 in Birmingham two years ago.
Hariyanto plays fourth seed Bao Chunlai, who he took to three games in the Sudirman Cup earlier this year.
'I did win a game against Bao at the Sudirman Cup but he also won the other two games 15-5, 15-5, so I think he will be the favourite,' said the world number 21.
China are ambitiously aiming for a clean sweep of all five golds in Anaheim but did not have it all their own way, women's singles eighth seed Zhou Mi suffering a shock 11-2, 11-9 loss to Germany's Juliane Schenk.
