There were no upsets in the early stages of men’s singles at the US$50,000 KLRC New Zealand Badminton Open at the North Shore Events Centre with top seed and former champ Sairul Amar Ayob of Malaysia cruising through into the second round.
Ayob the winner of the Grand Prix event in 2005 beat Waitakere’s Stanley Koo 21-7 21-5 to move into the second round where he will face Auckland’s Brent Miller. Also winning in straight games was Indonesian fifth seed Tommy Sugiarto who accounted for Reon McFarlane of the Waikato while Malaysian third seed and 2006 tournament winner cruised past North Harbour’s Joseph Ho easily.
Kiwi victors in the first round were Southland’s James Eunson over Counties Manukau’s Praveen Tayalan as well as New Zealand eighth seed and another member of the world junior championship side of the past two years Ethan Haggo(Waitakere) who beat Dhanny Oud of Auckland. Luke Charlesworth, William Bok and Delius Tang also won into the second round against fellow Kiwis.
Gaining a walkover victory was New Zealand’s Dean Nuttall with the non-appearance of second see Muhammad Roslin Hashim who was ranked inside the world’s top-30. His no-show opens up the draw for North Harbour based Alistair Casey of Scotland as well as Lee who are in the same quarter and half of the draw respectively.
Current women’s world No2 Zhou Mi plays her opening singles match against Southland’s Anna Rankin early evening on Wednesday.
Last Modified on 11/11/2008 20:39