Denmark Open: Hong Kong badminton stars off to mixed start, as Angus Ng Ka-long’s struggles continue
- Mixed-doubles pair Reginald Lee Chun-hei and Yoyo Ng Tsz-yau take advantage of late entry into draw with narrow win
- In the singles, Lee Cheuk-yiu breezes past Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen, but Ng crashes out in the first round
Hong Kong’s badminton players have made a mixed start to this week’s Denmark Open in Odense, the penultimate tournament before the year-ending World Tour Finals in December.
Mixed-doubles pair Reginald Lee Chun-hei and Yoyo Ng Tsz-yau, who are ranked 40th in the world, took advantage of their late entry into the 32-pair draw, with a narrow win over China’s Zhang Shuxian and Guo Xinwa.
In the singles, Lee Cheuk-yiu breezed past Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in straight games, but Angus Ng Ka-long’s miserable season continued, as he crashed out in the first round, losing to India’s Srikanth Kidambi 17-21, 21-14, 21-12.
There was defeat too in the women’s doubles, with Lianne Yeung Nga-ting and Yeung Pui-lam comprehensively beaten by China’s Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 21-7, 21-17.
Lee and Ng had to fight hard for their 21-19, 15-21, 21-19 win, coming from 11-15 down in the final game to triumph in little more than an hour at Jyske Bank Arena.
“Actually, both of us still have some jet lag, but we are happy that we can get through it,” Lee said. “We know that opportunities like this are not easy to come by, so we did our best to win it from behind.
