Kennie and Kennevic Asuncion smashed their way past Japan’s Jun Takemura and Yasuyo Imabeppu for an inspiring 21-12, 21-19 victory yesterday that earned them a quarterfinal round seat in the mixed-doubles event of the $120,000 Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton Championships at the PhilSports Arena.
       With the crowd wildly behind them, the top Filipino brother-sister tandem was superb throughout, with Kennie coming through with big winners. They now face an Indon pair that surprised a fifth-ranked Thai side.
       The win also consoled Kennevic, who bowed to sixth seed Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong in the men’s singles event the other day.
       The Asuncions take on Indons Puri Setyo and Lili Wang, who eked out a 21-15, 18-21, 21-17 win over Nattapon Naktong and Duang Anong Arunkesorn of Thailand, in today’s quarterfinal round.
       “Hopefully, we’ll sustain our play and win more games,” said Kenny. The Asuncions’ mixed-doubles ranking dropped from 22nd last year to 69th in the current International Badminton Federation world rankings because of lack of international competitions.
       Asuncion dished out brilliant shots but was erratic at times, dropping a closely fought match to Chan, ranked 35th in the world.
       “I had my chances but I couldn’t get the feel of my shots, maybe because of lack of tournaments,” said Asuncion. His only international tournaments last year were the Manila Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Badminton Championships in Malaysia.
       Top seed Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia and Lee Yen Hui Kendrick of Singapore fought back from a pair of first-set setbacks to pull off hard-earned three-set victories.
       Hashim, the highest-ranked men’s player in the tournament at No. 11, nipped a stubborn Nguyen Quang Minh of Vietnam, 16-21, 21-17, 21-11. The world No. 48 Lee booked a 20-22, 21-19, 21-19 triumph over a taller, long-limbed Anup Sridhar of India. Unranked Malaysian James Chua registered the day’s biggest upset over ninth seed Indon Jeffer Rosobin, ranked No. 38 in the world, 21-17, 21-16.
       Also advancing were world No. 19 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, world No. 60 Lee Tsuen Seng of Malaysia, world No. 33 Andrew Smith of England and world No. 49 Yogendran Khrishnan of Malaysia.
       Ponsana downed Anand Pawar of India, 21-15, 22-20; Lee walloped Rai Raju of the United States, 21-11, 22-20; Smith trounced Wong Wai Hong of Hong Kong, 21-9, 21-16; and Khrishnan hurdled Bo Rafn of Denmark, 21-19, 21-11.