Manila: Malaysia men’s team has entered final of the 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships when they swept past favorites Japan 3-0 in the semi-final on Saturday.
Japan was not at the same level without the World No. 1 men’s singles player, Kento Momota. Malaysia’s World No. 14 Lee Zii Jia got off to a strong start for Malaysia as he came from dropping the second set to beat Japan’s World No. 10 Kanta Tsuneyama 21-11, 8-21, 21-11 in 52 minutes.
In the first men’s doubles match that followed, the World No. 8 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia exacted their 2019 Malaysia Open loss by beating Japan’s World No. 13 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi 21-18, 21-15 in only 35 minutes to put Malaysia at 2-0 lead.
Malaysia’s World No. 71 Cheam June Wei showed no fear facing World No. 13 Kenta Nishimoto as he came back from a second set loss to upset the Japanese 21-19, 3-21, 21-12 in 54 minutes to send Malaysia into the final.
In another men’s team semi-final, Indonesia overcame the spirited performance from India before winning 3-2.
In the semi-final tie, India has decided to bench senior stars, including Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy on Saturday.
Indonesia was able to win the first point through Anthony Sinisuka Ginting after Sai Praneeth retired midway during the first singles match.
Indonesia eventually has to rely on men’s doubles pairs, World No. 2 doubles pair of Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan and World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya to seal the deal for their team.
