PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Justin Hoh and women’s doubles pair Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan secured their maiden quarter-final appearances in a Super 500 tournament at the Australian Open yesterday.
The question now is whether they can take another step forward in Sydney.
World No. 47 Justin stayed solid to beat world No. 24 Nhat Nguyen 21-17, 21-19 at the Quaycentre to set up a match against Indonesia’s rising shuttler Moh Zaki Ubaidillah.
Justin’s previous best was only reaching the second round of the Hong Kong Open and Korean Open last year.
The 18-year-old and world No. 35 Zaki has been on fire.
He played brilliantly to beat world No. 33 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong 21-19, 21-15 in straight games in the second round.
Zaki has had a breakthrough season, winning the Thailand Masters in February and a quarter-final appearance at the Malaysian Masters last month.
Zaki holds the head-to-head score at 2-1, but Justin had beaten the Indonesian at their most recent meeting at the Asia Team Championships in Qingdao, China, in February.
It will be tough too for Zi Yu-Noraqilah as they will face world No. 15 Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Trias of Indonesia today.
The rising Malaysian pair kept their campaign going after defeating home players Jazmine Lam-Lim Yee-Yuan 21-9, 21-18 in just 26 minutes.
The young pair have been on a hot run safter defeating their second top 10 pair this year in this tournament.
They dumped world No. 8 Hsieh Pei-shan-Hung En-tzu of Taiwan in the opening round and had knocked out world No. 7 Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi of Japan during the Uber Cup Finals in May.
Justin and Zi Yu-Noraqilah are the only remaining Malaysians in the Australian Open as all others did not go beyond second round.
SECOND ROUND RESULTS
Malaysians only
Men’s singles: Justin Hoh bt Nhat Nguyen (Ire) 21-17, 21-19.
Women’s singles: Huang Yu-hsun (Tpe) bt Wong Ling Ching 21-18, 21-19.
Men’s doubles: Chen Cheng-kuan-Liu Kuang-heng (Tpe) bt Chai Weijie-Teo Ee Yi 13-21, 21-18, 21-17.
Women’s doubles: Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan bt Jazmine Lam-Lim Yee-Yuan (Aus) 21-9, 21-18.
Mixed doubles: Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping (Chn) bt Loo Bing Kun-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan 21-9, 21-8; Chan Yin Chak-Ng Tsz Yau (Hkg) bt Hoo Pang Ron-Lai Pei Jing; Ruttanapak Oupthong-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat (Tha) bt Jimmy Wong-Cheng Su Yin 21-15, 15-21, 22-20.
