Aarhus: Lee Zii Jia, Cheam June Wei, Ng Tze Yong won their respective men’s singles matches to sweep its Group D tie with Canada on Tuesday.
Malaysia was originally scheduled to play England on Monday. However, due to the withdrawal of the England team, Malaysia had an extra day’s rest before playing Canada.
In the first men’s singles match, Lee Zii Jia withstood the pressure from Canada’s rising star, Brian Yang, and needed only 38 minutes to beat Yang 21-18, 21-13.
The 19-year-old Yang who defeated Indonesia’s World No. 7 Jonatan Christie at last week’s Sudirman Cup and Japan’s World No. 13 Kanta Tsuneyama in the first Thomas Cup Group D tie with Japan on Sunday, was once leading at 13-11, 14-13 in the first set over Lee after the mid-game interval. Lee quickly regained the initiative as he stepped up his attacks to win the first game 21-18.
Lee was dominating the entire second set, seeing off his Canadian opponent 21-13 to clinch the first point for Malaysia.
After winning the first game 21-14, Malaysia’s World No. 70 Cheam June Wei was off to a slow start in the second set, trailing 3-6 before reeling off 6 consecutive points to lead at 9-6 and ultimately won the second game 21-14 to give Malaysia a 2-0 advantage.
Malaysia’s World No. 82 Ng Tze Yong then took to the court to face World No. 79 Canadian B. R. Sankeerth. Ng enjoyed a comfortable first set win with 21-7 but was met with strong resistance from Sankeerth in the second set, as both of them fought until 19-19 before Lee killed a high net shot from Sankeerth to wrap up the second game 21-19 and to score the winning point for Malaysia.
Nur Izzuddin/Soh Wooi Yik and Aaron Chia/Goh Sze Fei then won the men’s doubles matches to give Malaysia a 5-0 overall victory over Canada.
With that victory on Tuesday, Malaysia has qualified for the Thomas Cup quarter-finals and will play Japan to determine the champions and runners-up of Group D on Thursday. Only the top two teams from each group could enter the quarter-finals.
Below are day four results of the 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup finals:
2020 Thomas Cup Results (October 12, 2021):
Thomas Cup – Group C, China vs. Netherlands 5-0
Thomas Cup – Group D, Malaysia vs. Canada 5-0
Thomas Cup – Group C, India vs. Tahiti 5-0
2020 Uber Cup Results (October 12, 2021):
Uber Cup – Group B, Thailand vs. Spain 5-0
Uber Cup – Group B, India vs. Scotland 4-1
Uber Cup – Group A, Japan vs. Indonesia 5-0
Uber Cup – Group A, Germany vs. France 2-3
Uber Cup – Group D, China vs. Denmark 5-0
