KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — Injury has knocked out the country’s number one women’s doubles pair’s hopes in the first round of the 2023 Singapore Open without completing their first round match at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, today.

Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah had to exit from their match against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi in the deciding set when Pearly Tan suffered an injury to her right elbow and decided to withdraw with the score at 9-16 in favour of the Japanese pair.

Pearly Tan-Thinaah lost the first set 13-21 but the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallists came back strongly to win the second set 21-17 and force the match into a deciding set.

However, with the score 9-16 in the third set, Pearly Tan decided to withdraw due to the injury.

Meanwhile, the country’s leading men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yii lived up to expectations by moving into the second round after beating French pair Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov.

Yew Sin-Ee Yii, the eighth seeds in the tournament were in sizzling form throughout their match before emerging with a 21-18, 21-13 straight sets win in 31 minutes.

Waiting for them in the second round will be either Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen or Indonesia’s Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan who play in a later match today. — Bernama