All smiles as Tze Yong marches on after beating Junpeng of China

PETALING JAYA: Singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong produced a superb display to upstage Zhao Junpeng of China in the first round of the World Championships in Copenhagen on Monday (Aug 21).

Both players battled point for point before world No. 22 Tze Yong secured a narrow 21-19, 26-24 win over Junpeng in 48 minutes.

In the Tokyo edition last year, the world No. 26 Junpeng was a semi-finalist while Tze Yong crashed out in the second round on his debut.

Next, the unseeded Tze Yong is likely to play 12th seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, who faces Misha Zilberman of Israel in the opener.

“Last year, I lost in the second round (in the world meet) and I will try to better this time,” said the 23-year-old Tze Yong.

“It was the first time we were playing against each other. Our game style is different but both of us were good in net today.

“The second game was tight. I was quite nervous but I tried to stay calm. He challenged the last point and I was hoping that the shuttle was out,” added Tze Yong, who celebrated when the shuttle was indeed declared wide.

Earlier, independent shuttler Lee Zii Jia also had made it to the second round after beating Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-13, 21-14 to set up a meeting with Brian Yang of Canada.