Gwangju: Malaysia’s World No. 68 men’s singles player – Soong Joo Ven and World No. 13 mixed doubles pair – Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai have advanced to the Korea Masters semi-finals.
Soong continued his impressive run by beating World No. 49 Misha Zilberman of Israel 23-21, 21-18 in the quarterfinals at the Gwangju Yeonju Stadium on Friday.
Soong will meet World No. 47 Kodai Naraoka from Japan for a place in the final on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the No. 4 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Lai, played well to beat Singapore’s 2022 India Open and Orleans Masters champions – Terry Hee/Tan Wei Han 21-16, 21-11.
Nevertheless, World No. 13 Goh/Lai were handed a difficult task in the semi-finals as they were scheduled to meet the Chinese duo, Ou Xuan Yi/Huang Ya Qiong.
“Overall, we played very well today, both tactically and technically. Although we had some ups and downs over the past few weeks, we faced and learned from it together,” said Lai.
“For the semi-finals, we will prepare more in terms of mentally because we’re expecting it to be a difficult match. We are going to work on our game strategy shortly,” added Lai.