REIGNING Sea Games champion Wong Mew Choo found former World No 1 Dai Yun of China too hot to handle when she crashed out in the qualifying rounds of the US$180,000 (RM540,000) Japan Open in Tokyo yesterday. In fact, all the Malaysians fell in the qualifiers, with the exception of men’s doubles pair of Gan Teik Chai-Koo Kien Keat and the mixed doubles pair of Gan-Fong Chew Yen who progressed to the main round at the Yoyogi National Stadium 2 in Tokyo today. While Mew Choo fell to a 11-7, 11-2 defeat at the hands of Dai Yun, Woon Sze Mei was shown the exit by Japan’s Tomoko Koyanagi 11-8, 11-5. However, Gan-Koo, who beat Thailand’s Asian Games champions Pramote Teerawiwatana-Tesana Panvisvas in the first round of the All England championships, beat Japan’s Shinji Ohta-Hiroyuki Yamaguchi and Naoki Kawamae-Yusuke Shinkai 15-11, 15-7 and 15-13, 13-15, 15-7 respectively. But in qualifier for the main draw, Gan-Koo will be further tested as they are drawn to meet third seeds and Swiss Open champions Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun in the first round. Gan, partnering Fong Chew Yen in the mixed doubles, also qualified for the main draw after defeating Ireland’s Donal O’Halloran-Huang Bing 15-8, 12-15, 15-10. They were rewarded with a match against fourth seeds Jonas Rasmussen-Rikke Olsen of Denmark. But it was the end of the road for Fong-Ooi Sock Ai in the women’s doubles when they crashed to Japan’s Izumi Honda-Chihiro Miura 15-12, 4-15, 9-15. NST