Incheon: Malaysia’s unseeded Lee Zii Jia produced a brilliant display in the Korea Open second round by defeating No. 7 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark 21-18, 21-16 at the Incheon Ariport Skydome on Thursday.
This was Axelsen’s second tournament since returning from an injury lay-off which had kept him out of international tournament since July.
“I’m very happy to able to win against my idol Axelsen. It means a lot to me,” said Lee.
“But, it was clearly that Axelsen has not fully recovered. I am sure he will come back stronger,” added Lee.
Lee will meet World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan in the last 8 on Friday.
Meanwhile, the men’s singles No. 1 seed Kento Momota eased past Kim Donghun of Korea 21-12, 21-9 in just 31 minutes.
Nevertheless, Malaysia’s Daren Liew who pulled off an upset against two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the first round, went down to Parupalli Kashyap of India 17-21, 21-11, 12-21.
In men’s doubles, Malaysia’s Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong failed to force a decider when they allowed No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo reeled off two consecutive points after successfully forcing deuce at 20-20 in the second set. Goh/Tan ultimately lost to the Indonesian pair 9-21, 20-22. This was Goh/Tan’s second consecutive loss to Gideon/Sukamuljo in two weeks.
Another Malaysian men’s pair, Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin was forced to dig deep to battle past compatriots, Chooi Kah Ming/Low Juan Shen 19-21, 21-18, 21-15 to take on Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae of Korea on Friday.
