Jakarta: In an all-Malaysian men’s doubles quarter-final, the World No. 9 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik fought extremely hard to see off fellow teammates Teo Ee Yi/Ong Yew Sin 28, 26, 21-19 in 40 minutes to set up a semi-final meeting with No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia.
The defending champions from Indonesia showed their dominance by beating He Ji Ting/Tan Qiang of China 21-19, 21-13 in the last eight.
In mixed doubles, Malaysia’s unseeded Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing also booked their tickets to the semi-finals by beating Korean pair Ko Sung Hyun/Eom Hye Won 21-7, 21-18.
Tan/Lai won the first set in a relatively easy fashion, and were able to shrug off the pressure in the second set before securing an absolute victory in the 34-minute match.
Last week at the Malaysian Masters, Tan/Lai suffered a disappointing first round exit. However, they will face a tough test in the semi-final as they will meet China’s top seeds Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong.
Zheng/Huang defeated Malaysia’s No. 6 seeds Chang Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying 21-14, 21-13 on Friday.
“This is our first time heading into the semi-finals since the Malaysian Open last year,” said Lai.
“For semi-final, we will definitely give our all and try to avoid falling behind too far against Zheng/Huang,” added Lai.
