Men's Singles Badminton Fail In First Round (BERNAMA)

From Jumiati Rosly ', TEXTFONT, 'Verdana, Arial, Helvetica', TEXTSIZE, '1', WIDTH, 75)" onmouseout="nd()">VIENTIANE, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's challenge in the badminton men's singles at the Laos SEA Games ended as early as in the first round when Muhammad Hafiz Hashim and Liew Daren lost their matches at Gymnasium 1, National Sports Complex, here.

Without the presence of world number one Datuk Lee Chong Wei, Malaysia had to forget about a gold medal in the men's singles.

However, Malaysia's men's doubles pairs of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Mohd Fairuzizuan Tazari-Mohd Zakry Latif, and women's singles Wong Mew Choo and Lydia Cheah will be in the quarter-finals Tuesday.

So will the women's doubles pairs of Wong Pei Tty-Chin Eei Hui and Woon Khe Wei-Chong Sook Chin, and mixed double pairs of Koo Kien Keat-Wong Pei Tty and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying.

Hafiz lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro for the second time in a row in a three-set match with scores of 12-21, 21-19, 14-21.

The chance given to Liew Daren to fill the vacancy left by Chong Wei failed to bear fruit when the young player lost to an unknown, Vietnam's Nguyen Hoang Hai 9-21, 15-21.

In the women's singles, Mew Choo was given a bye in the opening round, but will face a still fight in a quarter-final match Tuesday Olympic bronze medallist, Maria Kristin from Indonesia.

Lydia beat Nhung Le Nguyen from Vietnam, 14-21, 21-12, 21-12, to face Zhang Beiwen from Singapore.

Malaysia's number one doubles Kien Keat-Boon Heong, however, had to go into the third set to defeat Bodin Isara-Maneepong Jongjit 14-21, 21-12, 23-21, while Mohd Fairuzizuan-Mohd Zakry had to fight hard to overcome Vietnam's Bui Bang Duc-Dao Manh Thang 21-15, 18-21, 21-10.

After Sunday's victory in the women's team event, Khe Wei returned to her original partner Chong Sook Chin and defeated Khonesanith Inthavanh-Manivone Meungchaleun 21-8, 21-11.

Pei Tty-Eei Hui, who received a bye in the first round, will face Frances Liu-Vanesa Neo from Singapore Tuesday.

Malaysia will also continue its challenge in the mixed doubles after Kien Keat-Pei Tty defeated Jeffrey Wong-Fu Mingtian from Singapore 21-17, 21-10, while Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying beat the Vietnames pair of Duong Bao Duc-Thai Thi Hong 21-15, 21-11.

-- BERNAMA