KUALA LUMPUR: Third time is the charm for world No. 65 Wan Arif Junaidi-Yap Roy King as they finally managed to overcome fierce rivals Lu Ming Che-Tang Kai Wei to sail into the second round of the Spain Masters.
Arif-Roy King turned on the style to carve out a convincing 21-18, 21-19 victory over their Taiwanese opponents at Centro Deportivo Municipal in Madrid on Tuesday.
World No. 77 Ming Che-Kai Wei have proved to be a tough nut to crack for Arif-Roy King as they had lost three of their four meetings last year.
The recent two defeats suffered by Arif-Roy King were at the Kaohsiung Masters in September and the Korea Masters in November.
Arif-Roy King will face another Taiwanese duo, Lu Chen-Po Li Wei, for a place in the quarter-finals.
With Roy King having returned from a lengthy injury, the pair are determined to make up for lost time, and the Spain Masters could not be a more perfect platform for them to bid for their breakthrough World Tour title.
The men's doubles have seen the withdrawal of the top two seeds - Malaysia's world No. 12 Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and England's world No. 20 Ben Lane-Sean Vendy.
In their first outing of the year last week at the Swiss Open, Roy King-Arif could only reach the last 16 after being eliminated by compatriots Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun.
Arif-Roy King will be eager to emulate the rapid progress shown by backup squad teammates Choong Hon Jian-Haikal Nazri, who have gone from strength to strength ever since they landed the Syed Modi India International title in November last year.