Vantaa: Malaysia will face Japan in the 2021 Sudirman Cup semi-finals after a tense 3-2 quarter-final victory over Indonesia in a tie that lasted 4 hours 56 minutes, only 4 minutes from reaching the 5 hours mark.
World No. 27 Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See were gritty and very cool under pressure in the deciding match against Indonesia’s World No. 4 Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti.
The Malaysian pair got off the first game with a quick tempo to brush aside the Indonesian pair 21-19 in 21 minutes. However, Hoo/Cheah pretty much giving up after trailing 2-12 in the second set and eventually lost the game 9-21 in 16 minutes.
The Indonesians started the decider with Jordan kept aiming his powerful smashes towards Cheah. Hoo/Cheah made adjustments after the interval to mostly returning flat shots and moving the Indonesians to the left and right backcourt while seeking opportunities to attack. The strategy worked fantastically for the Malaysians as they established a handsome 20-12 lead. The Indonesian duo managed to narrow the gap to 16-20 and has a chance to earn another point when a backhand return from Jordan was called “in” by the line judge.
Nevertheless, the Malaysian pair decided to challenge the decision and as soon as the hawk-eye result showed that it was in fact “out”, the whole Malaysian team erupted in joy and stormed onto the court to hug and congratulate Hoo and Cheah.
The victory for Malaysian wouldn’t have happened without the wins in the men’s doubles and men’s singles match.
Malaysia’s World No. 8 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik set the stage for a nip and tuck battle between Malaysia and Indonesia that lasted almost 5 hours when they utilized their strong defense to beat World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-12, 21-15 in 33 minutes.
Even though Kisona Selvaduray lost to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 20-22, 21-18, 19-21 in the women’s singles match, Selvaduray showed extreme courage to push Tunjung into three-set before conceded in 67 minutes.
Malaysia retook the lead at 2-1 when World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia saw off World No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-11, 21-16.
Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia have nothing to fear although they were facing the Tokyo Olympics women’s doubles gold medalists – Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia in the fourth match. The Indonesians were stretched to the limit in an unforgettable women’s doubles match of energy-sapping tension, losing the second set and then withstanding the Malaysians who came back from 12-20 to almost force a deuce at 18-20 in the third set. Polii/Rahayu secured the second point for Indonesia after Tan pushed a smash from Rahayu out of bound and the Olympics champions wrapped up the match 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 in 91 minutes.
In Saturday’s 2021 Sudirman Cup semi-finals, Malaysian will play Japan while China will meet Korea.
