Dubai: Two Malaysian independent doubles pairs – the World No. 8 men’s doubles pair, Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi, and World No. 8 mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai successfully advanced to the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) semi-finals.
In the first game, Ong/Teo came back from 10-15 down to win 22-20 against World No. 1 Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 22-20. Ong/Yew were leading most of the second game and won 21-15.
Ong/Teo will play World No. 4 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the top half of the semi-finals while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India will battle Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan in the bottom half.
In mixed doubles, Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai eked out a hard-fought three-set 21-17, 15-21, 21-19 victory in the quarter-finals against Rinov Rivaldy/Pitha Haningtyas Mentari of Indonesia. Goh/Lai will meet Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong on Saturday. Another Indonesian mixed pair – Dejan Ferdinansyah/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja will square off against Jiang Zhen Bang/Wei Ya Xin of China for a spot in the final.
Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew has been gaining serious momentum with every win by showing the badminton world that he’s still got what it takes to win at the high-level tournament by beating Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong 21-19, 21-19.
Loh will play Lu Guang Zu of China on Saturday after Lu defeated Kodai Naraoka of Japan 21-19, 21-9.
Meanwhile, match between the World No. 2 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and the 2023 All England champion Li Shi Feng came down to the wire when both battled for one hour 22 minutes before Ginting walked away victorious with 10-21, 23-21, 26-24. Ginting will play Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the last four.
Here are other actions for the 2023 BAC semi-finals on Saturday:
Women’s Doubles:
Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota vs. Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai
Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara vs. Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee
Women’s Singles:
Akane Yamaguchi vs. Tai Tzu Ying
Chen Yufei vs. An Se Young
