Odense: Malaysia’s World No. 3 Lee Zii Jia is on his way to the 2022 Denmark Open quarter-finals after a dominant win over World No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan on Thursday.
Lee showed excellent form as he only allowed Tsuneyama to score 5 points in the first game before winning 21-5.
Tsuneyama continued to struggle early in the second set, falling behind by a large margin of 1-8 before leveling the game at 18-18, 19-19. Nevertheless, Lee proved he was stronger compared to Tsuneyama by scoring two consecutive points to win the second game 21-19.
Lee will play Indonesia’s No. 8 seed Jonatan Christie next. Christie was toiled for 67 minutes before beating Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 17-21, 21-9, 21-19.
In other men’s singles quarter-final matches, the World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen will meet his sparring partner Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, Chou Tien Chen will play Shi Yuqi while Lakshya Sen will take on Kodai Naraoka.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s World No. 9 men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi extended their impressive run at Denmark Open by beating World No. 17 Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi of China 21-17, 21-16 to play scratch pair from Taiwan Lee Yang/Lu Chen on Friday. The reigning men’s doubles world champions – Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik also advanced to the quarter-finals by outlasting Lucas Corvee/Ronan Labar of France 21-13, 21-18. Chia/Soh will face World No. 8 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty in the last 8.
In a pulsating mixed doubles encounter, Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai saved four match points in the second-round match against compatriots Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, staging an amazing comeback to beat Tan/Lai 18-21, 24-22, 22-20. Goh/Lai will battle Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan in the quarter-finals on Friday.
