Five Oceania mixed-doubles pairs have reached the quarter-finals of the MAXX North Harbour International, with a meeting between two of those partnerships guaranteeing regional representation in the semi-finals.
Australia’s Landon Kurniawan and Mimi Ngo, Jack and Angela Yu, and Australia’s Michael Owen and Gronya Somerville all won their last-16 matches at Badminton North Harbour. They were joined in the last eight by Andika Ramadiansyah and Nozomi Shimizu, and Rio Agustino and Priska Kustiaki.
The draw has placed Ramadiansyah and Shimizu against Agustino and Kustiaki in the quarter-finals. Whatever the outcome of that match, one Oceania pair will progress to the last four of the tournament.
Kurniawan and Ngo recover after interval
Kurniawan and Ngo overcame New Zealand’s Dylan Soedjasa and Justine Villegas 21-15, 21-18. The Australians were behind 8-3 during the second game and remained adrift at the interval, but recovered after the break to complete a straight-games victory.
Kurniawan said he and Ngo had focused on taking the match point by point rather than dwelling on earlier errors. He said their communication had helped them rediscover the intensity they had shown in the opening game.
Ngo said the pair had drawn confidence from each other and from coach Leanne at the interval. She said concentrating on individual points rather than the score had proved important as they turned the second game around.
The result continued the progress of the new partnership. Badminton Oceania reported that Kurniawan and Ngo had both been among the leading junior players in the region last year, while both are in Tier 3 of Badminton Australia’s Falcon performance programme. Ngo won women’s doubles at last year’s Oceania Junior Championships, while Kurniawan was runner-up in men’s doubles.
Yu siblings and Owen-Somerville also progress
Jack Yu and Angela Yu moved into the quarter-finals with a 21-8, 21-11 win over Tony Yu and Yee-Yuan Lim.
Owen and Somerville began their tournament in the round of 16 and beat Canada’s Lai Yin Chung and Farnazaneh Gholamrezaei Noogh 21-13, 21-12. According to Badminton Oceania, the Australian combination made a slow start but established a decisive lead and did not relinquish it.
The mixed-doubles draw now contains a substantial Oceania contingent at its decisive stage. The Ramadiansyah-Shimizu versus Agustino-Kustiaki match is particularly significant because it removes uncertainty over whether the region will have a semi-finalist. The other three pairs will need another win to join them in the final four.
Richardson’s upset ends in last 16
There was also an early notable result in men’s singles, where Australia’s Ken Richardson defeated Singapore’s eighth seed Jun Hui Marcus Lau 25-23, 21-19 in the round of 32. Richardson’s run ended in the following round, however, when Malaysia’s Erfan Hajibeigy won 21-16, 21-15.
Australia’s Muhammad Rafi Zafran Ferary likewise exited in the last 16. He had beaten New Zealand’s former Oceania champion Edward Lau 21-19, 21-17 in 54 minutes before South Korea’s Cho Hyeon Woo recovered from losing the first game to win 10-21, 21-17, 21-14.
Top seed Po-Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei reached the men’s singles quarter-finals after victories over Australia’s Ricky Tang and New Zealand’s Ricky Cheng. Wang is due to face Singapore’s Jia Wei Joel Koh in the last eight.
In the women’s singles, returning champion Tung Ciou-Tong of Chinese Taipei reached the quarter-finals, as did the Philippines’ 2025 runner-up Mikaela De Guzman. De Guzman said her patience had helped her come through a testing match against Chinese Taipei’s Yi Tsen Hsieh, and she also credited support from Filipino fans for motivating her.