Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia have extended their home court advantage of the Malaysia International Challenge by having at least one shuttler in the final of each of five categories.
The women’s doubles No. 1 seeds Soong Fie Cho/Tee Jing Yi and Lim Chiew Sien/Tan Sueh Jeou have guaranteed host country the women’s doubles title as they have set up an all Malaysian final on Sunday.
Men’s singles player Tan Jia Wei produced a brilliant display in the semi-finals, outlasting Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-17, 21-15 to set up a final meeting with No. 14 seed Hsueh Hsuan Yi of Taiwan.
Malaysia’s former world junior runner-up Lee Ying Ying advanced to the finals after she pulled off an upset by shocking No. 1 seed Ramadini Hanna of Indonesia 21-7, 10-21, 21-17 to set up a meeting with Wang Zhiyi of China on Sunday. Wang on the other hand, beat Joy Deng Xuan of China 21-12, 21-16 in another women’s singles semi-finals.
The all Malaysian men’s doubles semi-final saw No. 6 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik drop the second set to the defending champions and No. 3 seeds Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin before winning 21-18, 22-24, 21-13. Awaiting Chia/Soh in the final will be former World champions and No. 5 seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, a formidable and experienced duo that needed only 25 minutes to subdue No. 2 seeds Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Shen 21-15, 21-13 in the other semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Chen Tang Jie/Peck Yen Wei of Malaysia are set to battle Andika Ramadiansyah/Mychelle Crhystine Bandaso of Indonesia for the mixed doubles title on Sunday.
