KUALA LUMPUR: Time is running out but men's pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi have not given up on their Olympic dreams.
The Malaysians checked into the second round of the Thailand Masters today after seeing off China's Xie Hao Nan-Zeng Wei Han 21-17, 21-16 in the opening round in Bangkok.
World No. 12 Yew Sin-Ee Yi, who have suffered several setbacks this season, will play the winners of the match between Denmark's Andreas Sondergaard-Jesper Toft and China's Chen Bo Yang-Liu Yi next.
Once ranked as high as world No. 6, the independent pair have fallen down the pecking order and are currently 12th on the Race to Paris standings, seven rungs below former world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
A country can have two pairs at the Olympics if they are in the top eight bracket at the end of the one-year qualifying period in April.
Ee Yi-Yew Sin have also been left out of the Badminton Asia Team Championships as the tournament will not contribute much to their Olympic ranking points.
Meanwhile, Malaysian men's pair Lwi Sheng Hao-Jimmy Wong lost 21-16, 21-10 to homesters Supak Jomkoh-Kittinupong Kedren in the first round.
Men's singles Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin and Soong Joo Ven fell in the qualifying rounds while Cheam June Wei was promoted to the tournament proper.
He will join former Asian junior champion Leong Jun Hao in the first round.
June Wei will take on Czech Republic's Jan Louda while Jun Hao will play qualifier S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramaniam of India.