Bangkok: Lee Zii Jia became the only seeded men’s singles player left in the US$360,000 Thailand Open after he eliminated Kai Schaefer of Germany 21-7, 21-11 in the second round.
The World No. 6 Lee will play World No. 24 Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia in the quarter-finals.
Both the No. 1 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and the No. 8 seed Kidambi Srikanth of India have decided to withdraw from the tournament on Thursday.
Malaysia’s World No. 34 Daren Liew also booked his place in the last eight with a come-from-behind victory over the World No. 43 Koki Watanabe of Japan 16-21, 22-20, 21-11. Liew will play Zhao Jun Peng of China who pulled off an upset in the first round by defeating World No. 2 Kento Momota of Japan.
In men’s doubles, No. 6 seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia saw off Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-16 to set up a final eight meeting with the Tokyo Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei.
Meanwhile, the reigning men’s doubles world champions and World No. 3 – Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi have earned a chance to exact revenge for their loss to World No. 12 Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin in the Thomas Cup Group D tie between Japan and Malaysia last Wednesday, when both will meet in the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open.
The Malaysian mixed doubles No. 6 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai narrowly defeated Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto of India 21-19, 22-20 and will play No. 3 seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan for a ticket to the semi-finals.
Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan who broke into the BWF top 10 world rankings for the first time this week, eased past World No. 22 Liu Xuan Xuan/Xia Yu Ting from China 21-17, 21-11 to meet World No. 4 Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan on Friday.
