Jakarta: Malaysian badminton maestro Lee Chong Wei who climbed to World No. 4 in the latest BWF rankings that was released on Thursday, defeated Anders Antonsen of Denmark 21-12, 21-15 in the second round of the 2018 Indonesia Open to enter the quarter-finals.
The No. 7 seed Lee will battle Kantaphon Wangcharoen for a semi-final berth on Friday.
“I am going to play my best at Indonesia Open because this stadium will also be the venue for the badminton event in the Asian Games in August,” said Lee.
Kento Momota who just shot up to World No. 8 ranking, also progressed by beating local shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-14, 21-15. Momota will take on another Indonesian shuttler, Tommy Sugiarto on Friday.
Unseeded Tommy Sugiarto kept home hopes alive and was able to overcome No. 6 seed Chou Tien-Chen of Taiwan 21-13, 14-21, 21-18.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying have cruised into the last eight by beating Niclas Nohr/Sara Thygesen of Denmark 21-15, 21-17 in 38 minutes. However, a tough task awaits Chan/Goh in the quarter-final as they will take on challenges from No. 3 seeds Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping of China next.
The Indonesia Open 2018 in Jakarta is a World Tour Super 1000 tournament, offering 1.25 million U.S. dollars of total prize money, the largest of all BWF-sanctioned tournaments so far.
