PETALING JAYA: Malaysia rode on the strength of Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan to reach two semi-finals in the World Junior Championships at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati, India.
Yesterday, the 18-year-old Noraqilah reached the girls’ doubles last four with Low Zi Yu after disposing of South Koreans Cheon Hye-in-Moon In-seo 7-15, 15-12, 15-12 in a thrilling match.
They will face China’s Cao Zihan-Chen Fan Shutian for a place in the final.
Earlier, Noraqilah teamed up with Zi Heng and the top seeds earned sweet revenge by beating Ikhsan Lintang-Rinjani Kwinnara of Indonesia 15-10, 15-8 in just 25 minutes to storm into the mixed doubles semi-finals.
It was a satisfying payback for the Malaysians, who had lost to the same Indonesian pair in the quarter-finals of the individual event at the Asian Junior Championships in July.
They will next face Hung Bing-yu-Chou Yun-an of Taiwan for a place in the final. The Taiwanese pair were in fine form as they defeated Bhavya Chhabra-Vishakha Toppo of India 15-9, 15-7.
En route to the quarter-finals, Zi Heng-Noraqilah had also taken out two Chinese pairs - Feng Yilang-Zhang Jiahan (fourth round) and Wei Jianzhen-Liang Yuen (third round).
Earlier, Tan Zhi Yang-Nicole Tan had lost 15-17, 16-14, 6-15 to Lee Hyeong-woo-Cheon Hye-in of South Korea in another hard-fought quarter-final match.
Meanwhile, Ayu Fu Sheng's challenge came to an end after he went down 9-15, 9-15 to Richie Duta Richardo of Indonesia in the boys' singles quarter-finals.
The individual competition is being played under the 15 x 3 scoring format.
