Birmingham: Malaysia’s World No. 42 Ng Tze Yong secured his place in the 2022 Commonwealth Games men’s singles quarter-finals after beating Ajfan Rasheed of Maldives 21-7, 21-9 on Friday.
Ng is set to challenge the reigning World Champion and World No. 9, Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the final 8.
Loh, on the other hand, captured an easy victory in the second round by outlasting Alexandre Jean Bernard Bongout of Mauritius 21-13, 21-10.
The meeting between Ng and Loh on Saturday will be the first career meeting between the two.
In men’s doubles, both Malaysian men’s pairs – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik and Chan Peng Soon/Tan Kian Meng have advanced to the quarter-finals.
Chia/Soh will meet Kasirye Brian/Wanagaliya Daniel of Uganda while Chan/Tan will take on Alexander Dunn/ Adam Hall of Scotland on Saturday.
Both Chan Peng Soon and Tan Kian Meng also made the quarter-finals with their respective mixed doubles partners in the mixed doubles event. Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing are set to face Callum Hemming/Jessica Pugh of England while Chan Peng Soon/Cheah Yee See will play Jack Yu/Kaitlyn Ea of Australia for a spot in the semi-finals.
In women’s singles, Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei didn’t break a sweat in the last 16 as her opponent from Barbados granted her a walkover. However, Goh has a tough task ahead of her in the quarter-finals as she will meet World No. 7 PV Sindhu of India.
Malaysia only has one women’s doubles pair managed to make the quarter-finals, as Pearly Tan Koong Le/Thinaah Muralitharan were drawn to meet Jin Yujia/Crystal Wong Jia Ying of Singapore on Saturday, while another women’s pair – Lai Pei Jing/Cheah Yee See crashed out when they lost to Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith of England 19-21, 16-21 on Friday.
