Gwangju: Malaysia’s World No. 68 Soong Joo Ven sprung a surprise on Thursday when he eliminated No. 5 seed Heo Kwanghee and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Korea Masters on Thursday.
Soong, put on a brilliant display to beat Heo 21-11, 21-19 in 40 minutes. The World No. 30 Heo is well known for stunning former World No. 1 Kento Momota 21-15, 21-19 in the Tokyo Olympics group stage.
The 26-year-old Soong is scheduled to face Misha Zilberman of Israel who defeated Kalle Koljonen from Findland 21-12, 19-21, 22-20.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals was the Malaysian mixed doubles pair – the No. 4 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Lai who easily saw off the mother and son pair – Misha Zilberman/Svetlana Zilberman 21-5, 21-8 in 21 minutes.
Goh/Lai will meet Singapore’s Terry Hee/Tan Wei Han in the quarter-finals after the Singaporeans overcame hosts Kim Yong Hyuk/Kim Hye Jeong 22-20, 23-21.
However, another Malaysian mixed doubles pair, Chan Peng Soon/Toh Ee Wei was stopped in the second round by the Chinese pair, Zheng Si Wei/Zhang Shu Xian 18-21, 14-21.
Also failing to advance was women’s singles player Goh Jin Wei who lost to Wang Zhi Yi of China, 22-20, 7-21, 12-21 in 56 minutes. Goh had previously defeated Wang in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games final 16-21, 21-13, 21-19. Given that Goh hasn’t competed at any international tournaments for about 10 months, the result proved that Goh still has what it takes to become a top women’s singles player in the world.
