KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 — Former 2022 men’s doubles world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and 2025 women’s doubles World Championships runners-up Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan both survived early scares at the China Masters 2025 in Shenzhen, Guangdong today.
During the opening round of the Super 750 tourney in Shenzhen Arena, Chia-Soh were pushed to the limit by Taiwan’s Liu Kuang Heng-Yang Po Han, edging out a hard-fought 21-19, 21-23, 21-19 victory in just under an hour to book their place in the second round.
English pair Ben Lane-Sean Vendy will be up next for the men's doubles athletes, whom the Malaysian pair had beaten in five of eight meetings so far.
Lane-Vendy had earlier defeated Japanese duo Takumi Nomura-Yuichi Shomogami 21-16, 21-13.
Another national duo and fifth seeds Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun also secured a spot in the second round, overcoming France’s Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior, 21-11, 25-27, 21-15.
They will next take on Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando-Bagas Maulana, who eliminated Japanese pair Kenya Mitsuhashi-Hiroki Okamura, 21-16, 16-21, 21-16.
Meanwhile, national number one pair Tan-Thinaah bounced back from a game down to see off Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Meilysa Trias Puspitasari from Indonesia, 20-22, 21-16, 22-20 in a gruelling one-hour-and-13-minute duel.
They are set to face American duo Francesca Corbett-Jennie Gai, who ousted Taiwan’s Hsu Yin-Hui-Lin Jhih Yun 21-10, 23-25, 21-9.
Joining Tan-Thinaah in the next round are Ong Xin Yi-Carmen Ting after the unseeded pair took 28 minutes to cruise past Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda from India, 21-8, 21-13.
Sixth seeds from South Korea, Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee, who emerged victorious against the Taiwanese pair Hu Ling Fang-Jheng Yu Chieh, 21-12, 21-14, await Ong-Ting in the next round.
However, another national duo, Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing, fell just short in their bid to upset the eighth-seeded home pair Li Yi Jing-Luo Xu Min, going down 19-21, 21-12, 19-21.
