Angus Ng cruises through in winning start to Malaysia Masters
- Ng beats Darren Liew in two games to set up clash with Mark Caljouw, whom he beat only last week
- Mixed doubles pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet lose in a close encounter to Japanese opponents
Angus Ng Ka-long put himself in a strong position to reach the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters after cruising past Darren Liew of the hosts in the opening round in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
The men’s singles eighth seed had little problem in winning through in straight games 21-17, 21-15 in a mere 37 minutes, and will now take on Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.
He faced Caljouw only last week, in the opening round of the Malaysia Open, and won 21-18, 21-16 on that occasion.
“Ng should hold some advantages over the Dutch player, judging from his performance in their last match,” head coach Tim He Yiming said.
“But every match is different, especially in this high-level competition. Ng did quite well today, but Liew is not a difficult player to handle. He still needs to keep up his good work if he wants to repeat his success over Caljouw.”
Ng and Liew were fairly evenly matched in the opening stages of their round-of-32 encounter, as the Malaysian built a 13-10 lead. But then Ng upped the tempo, snatching seven points in a row to reach 17-13 before taking the first game.
