Five Oceania pairs have booked quarterfinal spots in the mixed doubles at the MAXX North Harbour International, while Australia’s Ken Richardson pulled off a Round of 32 upset over eighth seed Jun Hui Marcus Lau (SGP) in men’s singles at Badminton North Harbour on Thursday.
Kurniawan/Ngo rally back
Australia’s Landon Kurniawan and Mimi Ngo won against New Zealand’s Dylan Soedjasa and Justine Villegas 21-15, 21-18 in the Round of 16. The young Australians trailed 8-3 in the second game and could not close the gap before the interval, but fought back after the break.
It was a clash between a new partnership and an experienced New Zealand pair, but Kurniawan and Ngo are far from inexperienced. Both were among the best junior players in Oceania last year. Ngo won women’s doubles at last year’s Oceania Junior Championships, Kurniawan was runner-up in men’s doubles, and both are in the Tier 3 programme of Badminton Australia’s Falcon performance programme.
Kurniawan said a mindset he has been working on helped turn the second game around.
“I tend to dwell on mistakes and previous points, but that’s something I’ve really been working on recently. All the coaches and everyone in my community always tell me to take it point by point and whatever happened last is in the past, so we just kept going. We just communicated really well and it brought back the fire we had in the first set,” he said.
Ngo said the pair leaned on each other and their coach at the interval.
“Even though we went down at the 11 points, we had Coach Leanne and each other to support each other and give us confidence back. Not focusing on the score, just taking it one point at a time really helped,” she said.
Yu siblings and Owen/Somerville join them
Jack and Angela Yu moved into the quarterfinals with a dominant 21-8, 21-11 win over Tony Yu and Yee-Yuan Lim.
Australia’s Michael Owen and Gronya Somerville made their tournament debut in the Round of 16 and outplayed Canada’s Lai Yin Chung and Farnazaneh Gholamrezaei Noogh 21-13, 21-12. After a slow start, they took a commanding lead and never gave it back.
Two more Oceania pairs are through. Andika Ramadiansyah/Nozomi Shimizu, the 2025 runners-up, and Rio Agustino/Priska Kustiaki complete the five, and they will meet each other in the quarterfinals, which guarantees an Oceania pair a place in the semifinals.
Oceania singles: Richardson upsets eighth seed, then Oceania exits
Australia’s Ken Richardson took down eighth seed Jun Hui Marcus Lau (SGP) 25-23, 21-19 in the Round of 32 with a gutsy performance. His run ended in the Round of 16 against Erfan Hajibeigy (MAS), a familiar rival on the Oceania circuit, who won 21-16, 21-15.
Australia’s Muhammad Rafi Zafran Ferary also went out in the Round of 16 after beating hometown hero and former Oceania champion Edward Lau (NZL) 21-19, 21-17 in 54 minutes in the Round of 32. The match was even throughout. Against Cho Hyeon Woo (KOR), Ferary took the opening game 21-10 but lost the next two, 17-21, 14-21, in 1 hour 12 minutes.
Top seed Po-Wei Wang (TPE) bested two Oceania players on the way to the quarterfinals. Australia’s Ricky Tang gave him a fight in the opening stages but could not convert when it mattered, losing 21-10, 21-13. Wang then beat New Zealand’s Ricky Cheng 21-14, 21-13, despite Cheng’s best efforts. He will face Jia Wei Joel Koh (SGP) in the quarterfinals, and Koh is one to watch in the later stages.
Australia’s Ephraim Stephen Sam came close to joining him in the last eight. He won the opening game against Japan’s Rei Miyashita and fought back from a deficit in the decider after dropping the second, but three points separated them in the end. Miyashita won 19-21, 21-6, 21-18.
Tung and De Guzman advance in women’s singles
Returning champion Tung Ciou-Tong (TPE) is safely through to the quarterfinals.
Mikaela De Guzman (PHI), the 2025 runner-up, withstood an attack from Chinese Taipei’s Yi Tsen Hsieh to reach the last eight. She said patience was the key.
“I’m really happy that I overcame a few points. I feel like I made a lot of errors, but I made sure to put my shots in first before I made any unnecessary errors. I was patient enough with my shots,” she said.
She also credited the crowd behind her.
“I’m very happy with the support that many Filipinos have given me this year and last year. I think that made me push myself to win every game,” she said.
