Saarbrucken: The men’s singles No. 14 seed Lee Zii Jia kept beating the odds at Bitburger Open as he overcame some shakiness in his first set to beat No. 3 seed Brice Leverdez of France 19-21, 21-18, 21-10 to advance to the Bitburger Open semi-finals on Friday.
Lee who was promoted to the Malaysian national senior team this year, will take on Rasmus Gemke of Denmark on Saturday.
No. 4 seed Hsu Jen Hao of Taiwan will play No. 12 seed Mark Caljouw of Netherlands in other men’s singles semi-finals.
Malaysia’s challenge in the men’s doubles however was fizzled out as both Goh V Shem/Teo Ee Yi and Tan Wee Kiong/Ong Yew Sin were sent packing in the quarter-finals.
Goh/Teo dropped to Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 12-21, 15-21, while Tan/Ong played a more resilient and tougher badminton against No. 2 seeds Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, but the Danish pair were having the last laugh by beating Tan/Ong 21-18, 21-12.
Zhang Beiwen of USA completed her women’s singles quarter-finals comfortably by defeating Lee Chia Hsin of Taiwan 21-7, 21-12. Zhang will clash with another Taiwanese player Pai Yu Po on Saturday for a spot in the final.
