Malaysian national champion Leong Jun Hao and men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani sailed into the second round of India Open 2025, at the KD Jadhav Hall Indira Gandhi Stadium on Tuesday.
The World No.28 turned down a first-game deficit to clinch a 18-21, 21-17, 21-17 win over fifth seeded Li Shi Feng in the BWF Super 750 tournament.
He will face Chinese shuttler Weng Hong Yang — who received a walkover from home shuttler Srikanth Kidambi — in the next round.
“I played him four times and never won. Today I think I did great on what I had planned before the match, so I’m happy I managed to execute it,” said Leong. “In the first game I was not so patient; I tried to be patient in the second and third and play more strokes, and that worked.
“For sure, it means a lot to me, because I’d never even take a game off him and today I won the match. He’s a tough opponent, physically and in the strokes he plays – he’s an attacking, all-round player. Today I just played with what I have and did my best.
“Since Yogendran (Krishnan) took over as coach five months ago, we have been working together on and off court, specifically on what I need. Every top player has their own strength and so we are working on specific things.”
Earlier, Malaysian men’s doubles pair of Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani saw off their compatriots Tan Wee Kiong-Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub in the first round.
The World No.2 clinched a 21-16, 21-16 victory in 41 minutes without breaking a sweat.
The duo will face winners of the match between Malaysia’s Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi and Germany’s Daniel Hess-Marvin Seidel in next round to determine a quarter-final spot.
Among other significant results of the day was new pair Kang Min Hyuk-Jin Yong’s defeat of the in-form Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, 20-22 21-19 21-16.
Kang said Korea’s pairs had been rearranged on a test basis for the early season, and for now at least, the experiment seemed to be working well, with his regular partner Seo Seung Jae having won the Malaysia Open 2025 last week with Kim Won Ho.
“We’re very happy to beat these strong opponents. But as we are a new pair, we are still working on a lot of things. Our partnerships have been tweaked on a testing basis, but I don’t know how long we will continue. Coming back to the India Open that I won last year, there are happy memories. We have started well here, so it’s a happy moment once again.”