Corban Crowther had a dreadful time in the first set of his match against Hikaru Shiraishi in Ipoh. He started by getting broken to love, despite landing every first serve in the game, and he won just nine points altogether as the eighth seed steamrolled his way through the set in 29 minutes.
The second set gave a far better indication of how well Crowther can play when he’s on song, staying with Shiraishi and even getting a break point in the sixth game. Shiraishi saved that with an ace, and went on to hold after the deuce, and it wasn’t until the ninth game that he actually managed to break Crowther’s serve. He only lost one point as he served out the match after an hour and 29 minutes, the final score being 6-0, 6-4.