Singapore: It was a mixed result for the Malaysian camp in Singapore Open quarter-finals on Friday as Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing managed to secure a spot in the last four, while Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying, and Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong have crashed out at the hands of two Indonesian pairs, namely Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja and Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan.
The World No. 26 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing who had advanced to the semi-finals of last week’s Malaysia Open, saved four set point to win the first set against Ricky Karandasuwardi/Pia Zebadiah Bernadet of Indonesia 22-20 before dropping their second set 14-21. Both pairs were playing neck and neck in the decider, in which Tan/Lai eventually won the match by clinching the decider 21-18.
In the semi-finals, the Malaysian pair will play another Indonesian pair, Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.
“Hopefully this time we can beat them and improve our confident,” said Tan as he was referring to their two previous losses to Faizal/Widjaja.
Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja, on the other hand, stormed into the semi-finals with a hard-fought 18-21, 21-12, 21-16 win over World No. 5 Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia in 66 minutes.
In men’s doubles, Malaysia’s professional pair Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong suffered their fifth career defeat to Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, bowing out 21-18, 16-21, 17-21. The No. 4 seeds Ahsan/Setiawan will play No. 2 seeds Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China on Saturday.
Playing in front of about 4600 badminton fans at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Indonesia’s No. 7 seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting produced a brilliant performance to stun No. 4 seed Chen Long of China 21-8, 21-19 in their men’s singles quarter-final on Friday.
Ginting is set to take on defending champion Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, while Kento Momota will face Viktor Axelsen in the other men’s singles semis.
The World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying will be up against World No. 4 Akane Yamaguchi and World No. 3 Nozomi Okuhara will face World No. 6 PV Sindhu in the women’s singles semi-finals.
