Trang: The 2013 Asian Junior Championships Soo Teck Zhi of Malaysia flirted with mortality at Thailand International Challenge on Wednesday when he came perilously close to a third-round defeat by the No. 16 seed Indonesian Andre Marteen. Soo eventually fought off the difficult three-set tussle to outlast Marteen 19-21, 21-14, 22-20 in 89 minutes.
Soo extended his career head-to-head record against Marteen to 2-0 after Wednesday’s victory and will take on Kodai Naraoka of Japan next.
The 20-year-old Cheam Jun Wei of Malaysia however was shown the door when he went down to men’s singles No. 1 seed Riichi Takeshita 21-11, 21-12.
Two-time Malaysian men’s singles champion Lim Chi Wing also suffered a third round exit, losing to qualifier Saran Jamsri of Thailand 18-21, 12-21.
Soong Fie Cho who just returned to badminton from a long layoff after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) on her left knee early last year, partnering former Malaysian No. 1 women’s singles player Tee Jing Yee to upset women’s doubles No. 1 seeds Ayako Sakuramoto/Yukiko Takahata of Japan 21-18, 21-18 in 55 minutes. Soong/Tee will meet another Japanese pair Misato Aratama/Akane Watanabe in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
