Enemies on court: Ng Tze Yong and Lee Zii Jia (right) will have no mercy on each other in the Australian Open quarter-finals today.
PETALING JAYA: The long-awaited clash between Lee Zii Jia and Ng Tze Yong is set to materialise.
The top two men’s singles shuttlers in the country have never played each other in international tournaments before although both have been placed several times in the same half of the draw this year.
This time, both Zii Jia and Tze Yong made no mistakes to storm into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open to set-up an intriguing match-up against each other.
The latter performed brilliantly to stun Indonesia’s world No. 5 Jonatan Christie 22-20, 21-15 in the second round at Quaycentre in Sydney yesterday.
World No. 21 Tze Yong impressively clawed his way back from 11-17 down in the first game and saved a game point when behind 19-20 to come out on top.
It was the 23-year-old’s first win over Jonatan in three meetings.
Meanwhile, world No. 17 Zii Jia fought hard to overcome India’s Mithun Manjunath 21-13, 12-21, 21-19.
It was a morale-boosting victory for the 25-year-old, who had been struggling for form.
Zii Jia has now claimed his second win under new coach Wong Tat Meng and reached his first quarter-finals since making it into the last four at the Swiss Open in March.
Malaysia are now assured of a men’s singles representative in the semi-finals.
Tze Yong will be out to break his quarter-finals jinx this year against his former national teammate.
The youngster has exited the last eight five times in World Tour events so far this year.
Tze Yong did make it into the semi-final in Australia last year.
As for Zii Jia, he will be looking to gain some much needed confidence ahead of the World Championships in Copenhagen from Aug 21-27.
He will also aim to justify his status as the country’s No. 1 men’s singles player.
