National badminton shuttler Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin booked a spot for the second round of the Bonny China Masters after bringing down Japan’s Koki Watanabe yesterday.
The World Junior Championship silver medallist spent 31 minutes to defeat the world No. 323 21-15, 21-16 in the first round at the Olympic Sports Center in Changzhou, China.
“My opponent is a junior shuttler, so it was not that hard for me. However, I have to remain grounded and focus one match at a time,” Iskandar said as quoted by New Strait Times.
“My target is to continue to play well and make the cut for the Thomas Cup team.”
Iskandar will face China’s Zhu Siyuan in the second round of the Masters later today.
In the other matches, Goh Soon Huat, Soong Joo Ven and Soo Teck Zhi were eliminated from the China Masters after suffering defeats to China’s Sun Feixiang, India’s H. S. Prannoy and China’s Ren Pengbo respectively. However, Daren Liew proved his doubters wrong when he won Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Wei Wang 21-17, 21-17 to advance to the second round.
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