Malaysia Open: Hong Kong’s Angus Ng cruises into second round, with Kento Momota up next
- Hong Kong badminton No 1 and his teammate Lee Cheuk-yiu will take on the top two seeds in the second round
- Head coach Tim He Yiming confident both can cause upsets, with mixed doubles duo Tang and Tse also featuring on Thursday
Angus Ng Ka-long joined teammate Lee Cheuk-yiu in the second round of the Malaysia Open after cruising to a 2-0 victory over Mark Caljouw in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Despite dropping out of the top 10 of the world rankings, the Hong Kong No 1 was still able to sweep his Dutch opponent aside 21-18, 21-16 in just 39 minutes at Axiata Arena, setting up a clash against second seed Kento Momota of Japan in the Super 750 tournament – where a total purse of US$675,000 is on offer.
Lee made it through the opening round on Tuesday with an upset victory over world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, and will next meet world No 1 Viktor Axelsen of Demark.
“Ng had a good performance, and although the score was not very impressive, he was in total control of the game,” head coach Tim He Yiming said.
“The breeze from the air conditioning was very strong in the venue and Ng has spent a lot of time of adjusting to the environment. After all, it was only the first round and he needed to adapt.”
Ng took an 11-6 lead in the opening game, but his opponent fought back to level things up. But that was the best Caljouw could offer, with Ng once again stepping up his tempo to make it 19-14, before closing out the game.
