Saarbrucken: Malaysia’s women’s doubles pair Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei became the country’s sole survivor in the quarter-finals of Bitburger Open as two others crashed out of the tournament.
Having lost the opener 16-21, the world No. 10 pair of Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei hit back to take the second 21-16, before pulling off a hard-fought victory in rubber-set, winning the third set 21-9 following an enthralling 57 minutes contest.
They are slated to meet an unseeded pair Poon Lok Yan/Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong in the semi-finals match on Saturday.
The Hong Kong pair moved into the last four of the US$120,000 tournament after earning a grueling 17-21, 21-18, 21-17 three-setter victory against Puttita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in 61 minutes.
Another Malaysian pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong who were the third seeds in men’s doubles, suffered a major upset after they went down 15-21, 16-21 to the sixth seeds pair, Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan.
Aangus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament on Friday, when he saw off defending champion and the men’s singles No. 1 seed Chou Tien Chen 16-21, 21-16, 21-14.
Women’s singles No. 3 seed Nozomi Okuhara was also ousted by no. 7 seed Busanan Ongbumrungphan, bowing out 21-17, 10-21, 19-21 in 63 minutes.
In the mixed doubles, No. 2 seeds Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto of Indonesia were shocked by unseeded Poland pair Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba in the quarter-finals, as the Indonesians slumped to a stunning straight-sets defeat with 13-21, 19-21.
Meanwhile, despite some strong resistance from the unseeded Malaysians Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying, mixed doubles No. 1 seeds Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock of England had to dig deep to gain the edge to eventually swat away Chan/Goh 21-13, 15-21, 21-12 to advance into semi-finals.
