Taiwan shuttlers off to a flying start at Indonesia Open

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton aces finished the first day of the Indonesia Open in Bali with flying colors on Tuesday by defeating their opponents in straight sets in both the men's singles and doubles events.

Taiwan's Olympic men's doubles gold-medalists and third seeds Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) cruised into the men's doubles round of 16 after defeating unseeded Goh V Shem and Low Juan Shen of Malaysia 21-14, 21-16 in just 30 minutes.

Lee and Wang also extended their head-to-head record over Goh and Low to 2-0 with this latest win.

Ranked No. 3 in the world for men's doubles, Lee and Wang will face Malaysia's world no. 19 pair Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the second round.

The Taiwanese duo are looking to add another title to their collection after bagging two Thailand Open titles, the BWF World Tour Finals 2020 in January, and Olympic gold in July.

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Chou Tien-chen (周天成) also reached the second round of the men's singles by dumping unseeded World No. 15 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong 21-12, 21-14 in 35 minutes. The win puts Chou ahead 3-2 in their head-to-head clashes.

Chou, who won the 2019 Indonesia Open, will next face the winner between Thomas Rouxel of France and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the round of 16.

Chou will be hoping to regain the Indonesia Open trophy and earn his first title this year before the season wraps up after finishing as the runner-up at the French Open in October.

The prestigious Indonesia Open, held from Nov. 23-28, has a total purse of US$850,000, and is the second stop in the three-tournament "Indonesia Badminton Festival 2021."

The festival also includes the Indonesia Masters, which was held Nov. 16-21, and finishes with the BWF World Tour Finals, which starts on Dec. 1.