Sydney: Two weeks after his first-round defeat to World No. 3 Loh Kean Yew at the Hylo Open in Germany with the score of 5-21, 20-22, World No. 29 Shi Yu Qi exacted his revenge when he ended Loh’s hope of capturing the Australian Open with a coming from behind quarter-final victory on Friday, winning 17-21, 21-16, 21-13.
“I was prepared before playing Loh. I was able to play good defense and was able to come back from losing the first game to regain my lead in the next two games,” said Shi.
Shi will play World No. 15 Kodai Naraoka of Japan whom he defeated in a grueling 2022 Denmark Open semi-final on Oct 22, 2022, where he barely scratched past the Japanese 21-15, 9-21, 24-22.
In another men’s singles quarter-final, Malaysia’s World No. 33 Ng Tze Yong thrashed Nathan Tang of Australia 21-9, 21-7Â to meet Lu Guang Zu of China in the semi-finals.
The men’s doubles event saw Malaysia’s World No. 8 men’s doubles pair – Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi withstood the challenge from World No. 22 Seo Seung Jae/Kang Min Hyuk to beat the Korean pair 23-21, 21-12, setting up a last-four meeting with World No. 28 He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong of China. He/Zhou outlasted their compatriots, World No. 23 Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang 21-19, 16-21, 21-17 on Friday.
The Tokyo Olympics men’s doubles gold medalists and the second-seeded Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin who were playing together for the first time since the 2022 Japan Open in September, lost to No. 8 seeds Liu Yu Chen/Ou Xuan Yi of China 20-22, 23-25. Liu/Ou will square off against Lee Jhe-Huei/Yang Po-Hsuan of Taiwan on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the sole Malaysian women’s singles player left in the tournament, Goh Jin Wei, was knocked out by the No. 3 seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand, losing 11-21, 13-21.
