Saarbrucken: Malaysia’s No. 14 seed men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia continued his sizzling form by reaching the Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton Tournament in Saarland, Germany on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Malaysian pulled off a major upset of the day, sending last year’s Korea Open champion Qiao Bin of China home with a 21-17, 21-12 victory over the No. 6 seed Chinese shuttler in the third round of the meet held at Saarlandhalle Saarbrucken Stadium.
Lee will get a chance to exact a revenge on behalf of his senior and former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei on Friday when he take on No. 3 seed Brice Leverdez of France. Brice Leverdez stunned Lee Chong Wei 21-19, 22-24, 21-17 in the first round of the BWF World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in August.
On the other hand, the 16th seed Malaysian shuttler, Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, who had a topsy-turvy performance this season, put up a spirited fight but lost to No. 5 seed Huang Yuxiang 17-21, 21-15, 8-21 in 62 minutes.
Malaysia’s newly-formed men’s doubles pair Goh V Shem/Teo Ee Yi also moved to the quarter-finals by dislodging last week’s French Open semi-finalists He Jiting/Tan Qiang of China 21-19, 10-21, 21-19 to set up a final eight encounter with No. 4 seeds Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
Another Malaysian men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Tan Wee Kiong overcame Mathias Bay-smidt/Frederik Søgaard of Denmark 21-18, 21-17 on Thursday and will play second seeds Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark next.
Malaysia’s interest in the women’s doubles, however, fizzled out after their only pair left in the competition, Soong Fie Cho/Tee Jing Yi, suffered an 8-21, 10-21 defeat to No. 2 seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand.
