Saarbrucken: In a battle of physical and mental resilience, World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia fought back from a 6-16 deficit in the second set against World No. 18 Kantaphon Wangcharoen from Thailand to advance into the HYLO Open semi-finals.
Lee played very patiently in the first game, and his cross-court smashes towards Wangcharoen’s front court area proved too much for the Thai player to handle, and Lee quickly wrapped up the first game 21-13 after Wangcharoen’s smash gone out of bound.
The Malaysian seemed to completely lose his focus and committed a lot of mistakes to down 1-10, 2-11 in the second game. At 6-16, several powerful and successful smashes from Lee Zii Jia have given the Malaysian a lot of confidence, he went on to stage a remarkable comeback to beat Wangcharoen 22-20 in the second game to play Kidambi Srikanth of India next.
Loh Kean Yew of Singapore will take on Lakshya Sen of India in another men’s singles semi-final.
In men’s doubles, World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia didn’t face any trouble to ease past Daniel Lundgaard/Mathias Thyrri of Denmark 21-14, 21-15, setting up a semi-final match-up against Supak Jomkoh/Kittinupong Kedren of Thailand.
Meanwhile, two young Indonesian men’s pairs pulled off big upsets by knocking out the World No. 2 Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan and World No. 7 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
The World No. 35 pair Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin showed they were ready to rise to the top of the world by beating Ahsan/Setiawan 22-20, 21-17. World No. 41 Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan also created a massive surprise by beating Alfian/Ardianto 21-11, 25-23. Both young Indonesian men’s pair will face each other in other men’s doubles semi-finals.
