All England Open: Angus Ng finds his way after cruising past French opponent in first round, but Lee Cheuk-yiu out
- Ng beat Thomas Rouxel 21-11, 21-19 to set up second round encounter against Lu Guangzu of China
- Lee Cheuk-yiu bows out after losing six points in a row in deciding game to Korean Heo
Angus Ng Ka-long won for the first time this year to advance to the second round of badminton’s All England Open, but fellow Hong Kong team member Lee Cheuk-yiu bowed out.
Ng took just 36 minutes to beat Thomas Rouxel of France 21-11, 21-19, but Lee struggled to match the intensity of his South Korean opponent, crashing out in three games to Heo Kwang-hee 21-13, 9-21, 21-16.
The coronavirus pandemic, has limited Ng, the world No 10, to just two events ahead of the Super 1000 tournament in Birmingham, which offers a total winning purse of US$1 million.
He played the last match for Hong Kong at the Asia Team Championships in Malaysia last month, losing to Jeon Hyeok-Jin of South Korea in straight games.
Last week he competed at the German Open, where he was eliminated in the first round by HS Prannoy of India, also in straight games.
“We hope he can pick up his confidence after the victory,” Tim He Yiming, the Hong Kong head coach, said. “The French player [Rouxel] was not too difficult to handle and Ng might have taken it a bit easy in the second game.
“He has been training overseas since last month and must keep focused as he did when he trained at home.”
