Australia’s Mitchell Wheller and Angela Yu overcame a sluggish start to make the quarterfinals of the VICTOR Oceania Championships 2022, on a day that saw the mixed doubles draw open up due to withdrawals by two seeded pairs.
Wheller and Yu got just four points in the opening game against Ming Chuen Lim/Joyce Choong, but recovered to take the match in three games, 4-21 21-13 21-14.
“We didn’t have good chemistry in the first game,” admitted Yu. “But we got through it, cleared our heads and were more focussed in the second game. We figured out where we had to focus, took control of the attack more, minimised mistakes and just made sure we got it over with,” said Yu.
Angela Yu.
The only seeds left in the mixed doubles draw were the top seeds, after two withdrawals and the exit of the second seeds. Reigning champion Gronya Somerville and her new partner Kenneth Choo stopped second seeds Tran Hoang Pham/Sylvina Kurniawan 21-15 21-17.
On the opposite end of the draw, New Zealand’s top seeded duo prevailed in their opening match. Oliver Leydon-Davis and Anona Pak are chasing crucial world ranking points in their bid to qualify for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in July and showed every intention of securing a spot in the final as they overcame the challenge from Australia’s Rayne Wang/Lee Yen Khoo, 21-14 21-15.
“Oli and I were just focusing on what we have to do. We’re using our experience from our recent Europe trip and a tournament last week in Waikato. We just remind each other to keep focus and ensure we’re concentrating on ourselves more as opposed to constantly thinking about what our opponents are doing,” said Pak.
Oscar Guo, Oceania champion in 2019, took down second seed Anthony Joe. The game unfolded with a number of dives and several enticing rallies, making for a highly entertaining match.
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