Story by Rachel Yip/Red Sports. Photos by Matthew Lau, Clara Yuan/Red Sports and Jerald Ang/Red Sports.

Danny Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart of Singapore in the men's doubles game aginst Aniloud Keophithoun and Phakornkham Fongmalayseng of Laos.

Danny Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart of Singapore in the men’s doubles game aginst Aniloud Keophithoun and Phakornkham Fongmalayseng of Laos. (Photo 1 © Matthew Lau/Red Sports)

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Saturday, June 13, 2015 — Singapore’s Hendra Wijaya and Terry Hee failed to advance to the quarter finals of the badminton men’s doubles tournament in the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. They lost in straight sets (18-21, 15-21) to Ronel Estanislao and Philip Joper Escueta from the Philippines.

At the OUE Singapore Open earlier this year, Hendra and Terry comfortably beat the Filipino pair 21-17, 21-12. This time round, the Singaporeans could not repeat their winning performance against a pair ranked eight places below them.

Hendra and Terry started the match strongly, racing to a 11-5 lead in the first set. The Filipinos soon gained a grip on the proceedings and stepped up their attacks. On the other hand, Hendra and Terry could not control their own shots, eventually giving the Filipinos the first set 21-18.

Once again, the Singaporeans started the second set strongly to lead 11-8 at the break. But as the game wore on, the Filipinos, backed by a vocal Filipino section in the audience, gained confidence to win the set 21-15, booting Hendra and Terry out of the tournament.

A disconsolate Terry said, “I think we played quite badly… not up to standards. In the first set when (the Filipinos) caught up, they started to gain more confidence. We also started to get more pressured.”

On the other hand, the other Singapore men’s doubles pair of Danny Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart cruised to a win over Laos’ Aniloud Keophithoun and Pharkornkham Fongmalayseng.

The Singaporeans overpowered their Lao opponents, winning 21-12, 21-15 in 22 minutes to advance to the quarter finals.

Danny and Chayut had come into the match with six consecutive losses. So for Chayut, this win was a confidence-booster. He said, “Today was quite an easy match for us, but we are quite happy because we haven’t won for a long time. It was a good match. Currently we are not playing well, so hopefully this match can improve our confidence.”

Danny and Chayut will face Thailand’s Pakkawat Vilailak and Wannawat Ampunsuwan in tomorrow’s quarterfinals (June 14) scheduled for 6.30pm at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Men’s doubles (Round of 16) results
Hendra Wijaya/Terry Hee (SIN) 0 Ronel Estanislao/Philip Joper Escueta (PHI) 2
(18-21, 15-21)

Danny Chrisnanta/Chayut Triyachart (SIN) Aniloud Keophithoun/Phakornkham Fongmalayseng (LAO) 0
(21-12, 21-15)

More photos on the next page