KUALA LUMPUR: Faiq Haziq and Ong Xin Yee kept Malaysia's flag flying in the boys' and girls' singles at badminton's World Junior Championships by reaching the last 16 in Spokane, United States yesterday.
Faiq overcame Canada's Timothy Lock, a two-time Pan-Am Junior Championships bronze medallist, 22-20, 21-13, and will next face Denmark's Alexander Ringbaek.
A victory in this round will likely set up a match against China's reigning Asian junior champion, Hu Zhe An in the quarter-finals.
Xin Yee, aiming to emulate the feats of two-time winner Goh Jin Wei, took a mere 22 minutes to beat Sweden's Ohling, 21-9, 21-12.
Seventh-seeded Xin Yee will next face the formidable Mihane Endo of Japan, a finalist in the German Junior Open in March.
Xin Yee is also competing in the doubles with Carmen Ting. They advanced after overcoming China's Jiang Pei Xi-Liao Li Xi 16-21, 21-17, 21-13. Their next opponents are Pan-Am Championships' winners Chloe Ho- Ella Lin of the United States.
However, Malaysian girls' pair, Chan Wen Tse-Chong Jie Yu were defeated by Japanese top seeds Mei Sudo-Nao Yamakita 21-18, 21-10.
In the boys' doubles, Bryan Jeremy Goonting-Aaron Tai bested Portugal's Santiago Batalha-Dini Maia, 21-16, 21-7, and are set to face Nicholas Raj-Tushar Suveer of India next.
Kang Khai Xing-Low Han Chen ousted Americans Neil Ganguly-Michael Xu 21-9, 21-9, but face a challenging match against China's Chen Yong Rui-Hu Ke Yuan next.
In mixed doubles, Han Chen-Jie Yu stand as Malaysia's only remaining pair after triumphing over Japan's Kosuke Kakuta-Mei Sudo, 21-15, 22-20.
Their prospects seem promising as they are anticipated to get past their next opponents from Spain, Rodrigo Sanjurjo-Nikol Carulla.
However, makeshift pairs Khai Xing-Carmen and Bryan-Wen Tse were eliminated in the third round.
Khai Xing-Carmen were edged 21-17, 22-20 by Lai Po Yu-Jheng Yu Chieh of Taiwan while Bryan- Wen Tse fell to India's Samarver-Radhika Sharma 21-19, 21-18.