Taiwan Open: Chong Wei Advances To Second Round

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- Former world number one Lee Chong Wei began his Taiwan Open challenge by beating Kim Dong Hoon of South Korea in the first round Wednesday. The 32-year-old took only 28 minutes to brush aside his opponent at the Taipei Arena, Taipei. The Penang-born ace, who is non-seeded in this championship, won 21-10 and 21-7. Chong Wei is scheduled to face 10th seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia after the world number 16 player beat Hong Kong player, Angus Ng Ka Long, 21-8 and 21-16. Prior to this, the national badminton champion had won the Canadian Open and American Open Gold Grand Prix. Chong Wei, the former world's number one, is now ranked 65th in the world, after not participating in several international championships. He was suspended for eight months by the World Badminton Federation (BWF) on a doping case. He helped the Malaysian team obtain a bronze medal at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, after ending his suspension. Another men's singles player, Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin qualified to the second round after beating Sho Sasaki of Japan, 21-15, 17-21 and 21-16 in one hour and eight minutes. Iskandar Zulkarnain will face sixth seeded player in the championship Wang Zhengming of China who beat Finland player, Eetu Heino, 22-20, 14-21 and 21-11. However, Goh Soon Huat was unfortunate when he was ushered out by championship's first seed and world's number one player, Chen Long of China. Goh had to struggle for 53 minutes before losing the match in 23-21 and 21-11. -- BERNAMA