PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's mixed team are one win away from securing a medal at the World Junior Championships in Cairo after setting up a quarter-final clash against Estonia.
The top seeds booked their place in the last eight after beating the United States 2-0 in the Group A playoff at the Cairo International Stadium on Tuesday (Oct 6).
Ahmad Redzuan Zulwaqqarizal-Low Zi Yu got Malaysia off to a good start in the opening game with an 11-6 win over Noah Chien-Jasmine Yeung in the mixed doubles.
Carine Tee then beat Micah Cruz 22-12 before Tiew Wei Jie stretched Malaysia’s advantage with a 33-15 win over Shriyans Bhagavtula.
Zi Yu returned alongside Genevie Lim in the girls’ doubles and the pair comfortably beat Audrey Chang-Jasmine 44-21, before Redzuan and Isyraf Hafizin Ibrahim wrapped up the first game 55-26 against Noah-Rithik Rasamseti.
Malaysia remained in control in the second game, with Irfan Shazmir-Genevie beating Noah-Jasmine 11-6 before Carine once again got past Micah, this time 22-14.
Wei Jie followed up with a 33-27 win over Rithik, although Genevie-Zi Yu had to dig deep before edging Audrey-Jasmine 44-41.
Damien Ling-Irfan then finished the job with a 55-46 victory over Noah-Rithik to send Malaysia through to the quarter-finals.
Malaysia face Estonia on Wednesday (Oct 7), with victory enough to guarantee them at least a bronze medal.
