Manila: The Malaysian team experienced mixed results on day three of the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships where only one singles and five doubles pairs have advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the men’s singles second round, the World No. 7 Lee Zii Jia beat World No. 24 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia 21-14, 22-20 to play World No. 14 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the quarter-finals.
Another Malaysian men’s singles – the World No. 35 Daren Liew was beaten by World No. 8 Jonatan Christie after a great fight. Liew eventually succumbed to the stamina and speed of the Indonesian 14-21, 21-13, 19-21. Christie will meet reigning world champion – Loh Kean Yew of Singapore next.
The World No. 9 men’s pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik overcame Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Andy Kwek Jun Liang of Singapore 21-16, 21-19 to next face World No. 7 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India.
Another Malaysian men’s pair – Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin defeated the South Korean pair, Kang Minhyuk/Kim Wonho 21-17, 21-17 to make the last eight.
Goh/Izzuddin are scheduled to meet the Chinese pair, Ren Xiang Yu/Tan Qiang who pulled off an upset to beat the No. 1 seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan 21-9, 21-15.
Meanwhile, Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun also did not disappoint when they beat the local pair, Christian Bernardo/Paul John Pantig 21-7, 21-12 to enter the quarter-finals.
“I think we both played very well today but we will have a tough game on Friday,” said Man Wei Chong said.
“I don’t want to think too far, just want to take one match at a time and do my best while being here,” added Man.
Man/Tee will next face World No. 8 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.
In mixed doubles, Malaysia’s Korea Open champions and No. 7 seeds Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing will meet the No. 2 seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino from Japan while No. 7 seeds Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan will fight No. 4 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan for a ticket to the women’s doubles semi-finals.
