Angus Ng cruises through in winning start to Malaysia Masters
- Ng beats Darren Liew in two games to set up clash with Mark Caljouw, whom he beat only last week
- Mixed doubles pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet lose in a close encounter to Japanese opponents
Angus Ng Ka-long put himself in a strong position to reach the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters after cruising past Darren Liew of the hosts in the opening round in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The men’s singles eighth seed had little problem in winning through in straight games 21-17, 21-15 in a mere 37 minutes, and will now take on Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.
He faced Caljouw only last week, in the opening round of the Malaysia Open, and won 21-18, 21-16 on that occasion.
“Ng should hold some advantages over the Dutch player, judging from his performance in their last match,” head coach Tim He Yiming said.
Angus Ng sets up Momota clash at Malaysia Open
“But every match is different, especially in this high-level competition. Ng did quite well today, but Liew is not a difficult player to handle. He still needs to keep up his good work if he wants to repeat his success over Caljouw.”
Ng and Liew were fairly evenly matched in the opening stages of their round-of-32 encounter, as the Malaysian built a 13-10 lead. But then Ng upped the tempo, snatching seven points in a row to reach 17-13 before taking the first game.
The Hong Kong No 1 was in total control of the second game, leading from the first point with a 7-2 advantage before Liew closed the gap to 7-6. That was the best he could offer, as Ng extended his advantage to 11-6 and never looked back.
Hong Kong suffered mixed fortunes in the mixed doubles as top pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet fell short against Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo of Japan. The Hong Kong pair won their previous two encounters with their opponents but it was a different story in Kuala Lumpur as they lost 21-17, 19-21, 21-19 in an hour-long battle.
“Tang and Tse did put up a close fight even though they lost eventually,” He said. “The opponents did have some quality. In the end, winning or losing was a very close thing and it did not surprise me too much.”
Hong Kong hopes rest with Tse, Tang after Malaysia Open exits for Ng, Lee
Another Hong Kong pair, Chang Tak-shing and Ng Wing-yung, beat Adham Hatem Elgamal and Doha Hany of Egypt 22-20, 21-15 to set up a second-round clash with Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling-Fang of Taiwan.
“The Egyptians were not strong enough but the Taiwanese will probably give them a tough job if they want to progress,” He said.
Also in the men’s singles first round, Lee Cheuk-yiu continued his woes against Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia as he lost 21-16, 17-21, 21-19.
Although much lower in the rankings, at No 45, the Indonesian beat world No 15 Lee twice in this year’s Asian Championships, in the team and individual events.
