Taipei: Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, Goh Jin Wei, and Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Shen rolled through their quarter-final matches of the 2017 Chinese Taipei Open on Friday.Unseeded Lee Zii Jia, who will represent Malaysia at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games next August, needed 41 minutes to win 21-19, 21-16 on No. 8 seed Khosit Phetpradab in the quarter-finals.
The 19-year-old Lee is scheduled to meet No. 1 seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan on Saturday, who easily defeated his teammate and No. 9 seed Lin Yu Hsien 21-15 and 21-11 in 39 minutes to cruise into the semi-finals.
Another Malaysian men’s shuttle Daren Liew however was knocked out by Jeon Hyeok Jin of South Korea, losing 13-21, 21-18 and 14-21 in a 67-minute battle.
Malaysia’s 17-year-old women’s singles player Goh Jin Wei also made the semi-finals after she got her trouble out of the way late in the match, reeling off 6 consecutive points in the second set to beat South Korea’s Pai Yu Po, 21-15, 21-17.
Goh will play Japan’s Haruko Suzuki in Saturday’s semi-final match. Suzuki topped Kim Ga Eun from South Korea, 21-8, 21-17 on Friday.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s men’s doubles pair Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Shen survived a three-set thriller to push their incredible run all the way to the Chinese Taipei Open semi-finals.
Chooi/Low lost the first game easily to Choi Solgyu/Kim Jae Hwan of Korea 14-21. The Malaysian pair clawed back from 17-19 to survive a stirring comeback attempt from the Korean pair to take the second set 22-20.
Both men’s pairs fought valiantly against each other in the decider, Chooi/Low eventually outdueling Choi/Kim 28-26 in a pulsating third set that propelled them into the Chinese Taipei Open semi-finals.
Chooi/Low are set to meet No. 2 seeds Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan next.
