KUALA LUMPUR: Professional singles ace Lee Zii Jia suffered a shock quarter-final defeat when he lost to Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in the Orleans Masters on Friday (March 7).
Top seed Zii Jia failed to find his rhythm against Nguyen, who is currently coached by former Malaysian player Iskandar Zulkarnain, and went down 21-23, 7-21 in just 31 minutes at Palais des Sports in Orleans.
Nguyen will face homester Alex Lanier in the semi-finals.
The disappointment extended to the women’s doubles as Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing were also outclassed 13-21, 11-21 by South Korea’s Kim Hye-jeong-Kong Hee-yong in the last eight.
Earlier, second seeds Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah had bowed out 15-21, 19-21 after losing to China’s Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian.
In the mixed doubles, Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin were forced to withdraw from their quarter-final match against Indonesia’s Rehan Kusharjanto-Gloria Widjaja after Su Yin sprained her ankle.
Amidst the string of defeats, there was a silver lining as men’s doubles pair Wan Arif Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King kept Malaysia’s campaign alive when they battled past Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan 21-19, 21-18 to reach the semi-finals.
Standing in their way are top seeds Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China.
