Three of the highest 4 Males’s Singles seeds within the Panas Kuala Lumpur are gone. The bracket is in items. And Jimmy Liong has the house crowd on their ft.
Day 2 of the Panas Kuala Lumpur Open 2026 was the sort of afternoon that rewrites attracts and reshuffles expectations—a spherical of 16 that eradicated seeds No. 2, 3, and 4 in succession and left solely Hien Truong standing on the high of the Males’s Singles bracket.
The carnage started with No. 2 seed Jack Wong Hong-Equipment, the five-time singles medallist, falling to Nasa Hatakeyama, 11-8, 7-11, 5-11. Hatakeyama had stormed by means of qualifying on Day 1 with out dropping a sweat. He carried that momentum straight into the spherical of 16 and by no means let Wong settle.
Then got here the outcome the house crowd needed. No. 4 seed Kenta Miyoshi bumped into Jimmy Liong—and Liong, the final Malaysian standing within the draw, was not in a giving temper. He defended his house turf 11-6, 4-11, 11-4, sending Miyoshi packing and the gang into full voice. Liong continues to be chasing the rostrum end that slipped away from him eventually season’s Panas Malaysia Open on these exact same courts. He’s getting nearer.
The largest shock, although, belonged to Nguyen Hung Anh.
The Vietnamese qualifier—who received three matches in a single day simply 24 hours earlier—dismantled No. 3 seed Tama Shimabukuro, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9, in a marathon encounter that had Shimabukuro scrambling to each nook of the courtroom. Shimabukuro, 15, had not too long ago reached the Males’s Singles ultimate on the Veolia Atlanta Slam in america. His triple crown bid in Kuala Lumpur is over earlier than it ever really started.
That leaves Truong—the No. 1 seed and Males’s Singles high canine—as the only real survivor of the highest 4. He regarded each bit the half, dismantling Marco Leung, 11-3, 11-4, in a press release efficiency. His maiden singles gold stays firmly in his sights.
Shimabukuro Survives Elsewhere
Eradicated from singles, Shimabukuro regrouped shortly within the doubles occasions. He and Armaan Bhatia cruised by means of the Males’s Doubles spherical of 16 11-5, 11-5 over Maleganeas/Chung. In Blended Doubles, Shimabukuro and Alix Truong discovered themselves watching a first-game bagel—shedding 0-11 to Huynh and Hien Truong—earlier than rallying to take it 0-11, 11-6, 11-9. The triple crown is gone. The doubles run could be very a lot alive.
Sawaki Pushes Wang to the Edge
If Nguyen Hung Anh’s upset was the day’s headline, Kei Sawaki’s near-miss was its most compelling subplot.
The 15-year-old Japanese qualifier—contemporary off her comeback win over Pei-Yu Lai on Day 1—drew the stiffest attainable project within the Ladies’s Singles spherical of 16: No. 1 seed Chao Yi Wang, world No. 7. Sawaki took the primary sport 11-5. Wang levelled with 11-6 within the second. The decider went to 11-9 in Wang’s favour—with Sawaki two factors from one of many match’s most beautiful upsets.
From qualifier to inside two factors of a top-10 scalp within the house of 24 hours. It was the sort of loss that stings exactly as a result of she was so shut—but in addition the sort of efficiency that places the remainder of the draw on discover.
Sawaki’s match continues by means of Ladies’s Doubles, the place she and Xiao Yi Wang-Beckvall beat Ho Tam and previous Asia silver medallist Sarah Burr in three video games, 11-5, Sep 11, 11-6.
The quarterfinals start later in the present day at 8 a.m. (GMT+8).
