Hong Kong's top men's player Agus Hariyanto overcame an inconsistent start to win his opening singles game at the World Championships, but admitted that he struggled to come to terms with the environment of Birmingham's National Indoor Arena.
The seventh seed overcame the towering Canadian Bobby Milroy, but the 15-10, 15-12 scoreline would have been far more convincing but for a series of unforced errors. That was especially the case in the second game when Agus let the North American come back from 11-2 down to take a 12-11 lead, as he struggled with the breezes - at one point leaving a Milroy clear (an attacking shot) that fell at least an inch inside the tramline.
'I still haven't adjusted to the court,' Agus complained. 'I made too many mistakes. It shouldn't happen. I just need to adjust to the competition. It was all right for a first match. At least I won.'
There was a setback for Hong Kong in the women's singles as Ling Wan-ting lost against the 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Aparna Popat 13-10, 11-8. The two had split their previous encounters and are separated by only three places in the world rankings, but Ling's poor starts in both games proved decisive.
'I was expecting a tougher match,' said the 25-year-old Indian. 'I think she made a lot of unforced errors, but then so did I. I squandered my leads and it got quite close in the end.'
'It's quite disappointing. We expected Ling to win even though we knew Popat was a high quality opponent,' said Hong Kong coach Chan Chi-choi. 'She didn't play too well ... too many mistakes.'
