KENNETH AND MICHAEL TOP GROUP TO MAKE QUARTERFINALS

KENNETH AND MICHAEL TOP GROUP TO MAKE QUARTERFINALS

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's top pair of Kenneth Low and Michael Soo today won their second consecutive group match to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 16th Commonwealth Games squash doubles event.

The joint fifth seeded pair emerged undefeated in Group F after beating joint ninth seeds Craig Wapnick/Glen Whittaker of South Africa 7-15, 15-10, 15-9 at the National Squash Complex here.

Kenneth and Michael, who finished fourth in the world doubles championship in Hong Kong last December, will face world doubles champions and top seeds Chris Walker and Mark Cairns of England in the last eight.

The Malaysian pair had beaten Botswana's Maogi Moksogi and Conrad Ntshebe 15-7, 15-10 in their opening group match yesterday.

"It will be a tough match for us but we will try our best. We have nothing to lose here so we will try to give them a hard time," Kenneth said.

The quarterfinals will be played this evening. Second seeds Jonathon Power and Graham Ryding of Canada also made it to the quarterfinals where they will meet joint fifth seeds Peter Nicol/Stuart Cowie of Scotland.

The other quarterfinalists are third seeds Rodney Eyles/Byron Davis and joint 5/8th seeds David Palmer/Paul Price of Australia, and fourth seeds Paul Johnson/Mark Chaloner and joint 5/8th seeds Alex Gough/David Evans of Wales.

Malaysia's second pair of world junior singles champion Ong Beng Hee and Mohd Azlan Iskandar failed to continue their challenge when they lost 12-15, 9-15 to the more experienced Gough and Evans.

The young Malaysians had put up a creditable showing, especially in the first game.

"We were supposed to win the first game to keep the challenge until the decider," Beng Hee after the match.

Another Malaysian pair Leong Siu Lynn and Nicol David qualified for the women's doubles quarterfinals after finishing second in Group B.

-- BERNAMA