Ecstacy: Lee Zii Jia played one of the best matches of his career to upstage world No. 8 Shi Yuqi of China and book his place in the semi-finals of the Perodua Malaysian Masters at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Friday (Jan 8).
KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia played one of the best matches of his career to upstage world No. 8 Shi Yuqi of China and book his place in the semi-finals of the Perodua Malaysian Masters at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Friday (Jan 8).
The 14th ranked Malaysian came from a game down to stun Shi Yuqi 12-21, 21-16, 21-19 in a match that lasted 69 minutes.
Roared on by a vociferous home crowd, Zii Jia recorded his first win over the Chinese ace who is touted to be the successor to Lin Dan and Chen Long.
He will face another tough match against Japan’s world No. 1 Kento Momota on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying also reached the semi-finals after defeating Japan’s 21st ranked pair Takuro Hoki-Wakana Hagara.
The Malaysian independent pair won in style with a scoreline of 21-15, 21-18 in 42 minutes.
The sixth-ranked Malaysian pair have a difficult task next as they take on China’s world No. 2 pair Huang Dongping-Wang Yilyu
Their compatriots Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jamie were a letdown however after they went down tamely to China’s world No. 1 pair Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong.
The Malaysian world No. 8 pair simply had no answer to the Chinese pair’s aggressive attack and solid defence as they were blown away in just 24 minutes.
Meanwhile, newly independent men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi agonizingly missed out on a semi-final spot after squandering a match point opportunity against Korea’s Kim Gi-jung-Lee Yong-dae to lose 21-19, 15-21, 20-22 in a nail-biting 65 minutes battle.
“We were too anxious to win the game quickly and made mistakes,” lamented Yew Sin.
“We needed to be patient but failed to do that,” he added.
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