KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 ― National men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi were made to toil before advancing to the third round of the World Badminton Championships in Huelva, Spain, today.

In their second round match at Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Marín, Yew Sin-Ee Yi easily beat Joel Eipe-Rasmus kjaer of Denmark 21-12 in the first game.

However, the ninth seeded Malaysians faced stiff resistance in the second game, which saw the score tied at 19-19, before finally winning 21-19 in 39 minutes.

Yew Sin-Ee Yi, the world number 12, will face eighth seeded and world number nine Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India, who beat Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-Huei-Yang Po-Hsuan 21-4, 21-12.

Also through to the third round are national mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, who scored a convincing 21-8, 21-18 win over India’s Saurabh Sharma-Anoushka Parikh.

The ninth seeded Kian Meng-Pei Jing will next meet third seeds and Tokyo Olympics 2020 bronze medallists Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino of Japan.

Malaysia put another men’s doubles pair into the third round when Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Mohd Rumsani beat Alexander Dunn-Adam Hall of Scotland in three games.

After easily winning the first game at 21-14, Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin trailed for most of the second before losing 19-21.

However, they bounced back in the decider with a spirited display to take the game and match at 21-16 in almost one hour.

In the third round, Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin will take on Tokyo Olympics 2020 champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan, who were upset by the Malaysians in the second round of the Indonesian Open in Bali last month. ― Bernama