PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Justin Hoh will face a test of his stamina after fighting hard to overcome two South Koreans to set up a meeting against fellow Malaysian Lee Zii Jia in the first round of the Japan Masters.
Justin spent a total of 114 minutes on court to beat Jyeon Hyeok-jin 21-15, 21-15 and Cho Geon-yeop 21-15, 20-22, 21-17 in the first and second qualifying rounds respectively in Kumamoto yesterday.
The world No. 50 was impressive in his win over world No. 37 Hyeok-jin, who has caused huge upsets over the likes of Zii Jia and Singapore’s 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew before this.
Buoyed by the victory, Justin fought back from 7-11 down in the third game against last week’s Korean Masters semi-finalist Geon-yeop to prevail in 76 minutes.
Next, the 20-year-old will have his work cut out against world No. 7 Zii Jia, who will be playing his first match in the tournament and will be fresher than the former.
This will be the first meeting between the two players in international competitions.
This is not surprising as Justin is only competing in his second World Tour Super 500 tourney after making his debut in the Hong Kong Open in September.
In Hong Kong, the youngster gave Denmark’s world No. 29 Rasmus Gemke a huge scare before going down in three games in the first round.
Meanwhile, Zii Jia will be making his competitive return after missing the Denmark Open last month due to an ankle injury.
The 26-year-old needs to do well in this tournament to qualify for the World Tour Finals from Dec 11-15 in Hangzhou.
Zii Jia is currently sixth in the Race to Hangzhou rankings and needs to remain in the top seven to make the cut for the Finals.
Another Malaysian, world No. 31 Leong Jun Hao will also open his campaign in Kumamoto today and faces a difficult task against India’s world No. 17 Lakshya Sen.
Jun Hao has never beaten Lakshya in senior tournaments before, losing all three of their past meetings.
RESULTS
(Malaysians Only)
First qualifying round
Men’s singles: Justin Hoh bt Jeon Hyeok-jin (Kor) 21-15, 21-15.
Men’s doubles: Low Hang Yee-Ng Eng Cheong bt Chen Cheng-kuan-Chen Sheng-fa (Tpe) 18-21, 23-21, 21-11.
Second qualifying round
Men’s singles: Justin Hoh bt Cho Geon-yeop (Kor) 21-15, 20-22, 21-17.
First round
Men’s doubles: Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun bt Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov (Fra) 21-18, 21-23, 21-19; Tan Wee Kiong-Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub bt Chang Ko-chi-Chen Xin-yuan (Tpe) 21-9, 21-18; Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani bt Lin Bing-wei-Su Ching-heng (Tpe) 21-12, 21-17; Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) bt Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi 21-14, 21-15; Liu Kuang-heng-Yang Po-han (Tpe) bt Mohd Haikal Nazri-Choong Hon Jian 21-15, 21-17.
Women’s doubles: Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto (Jpn) bt Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah 21-9, 14-21, 23-21.
