Bitburger: Only once in a blue moon that you’ll see Malaysian badminton players pulled off the improbable to beat any Chinese badminton players, it’s worth some attentions if that happened.
On Friday, in an unexpected good run in form saw World No. 45 men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi did just after fighting off a valiant challenge from World No. 64 Huang Kaixiang/Wang Yilyu of China with 21-15, 24-26, 21-18 in 56 minutes in the quarter-finals of Bitburger Open. Ong/Teo are set to meet No. 4 seeds Chen Hung Ling/Wang Chi-Lin in the semi-finals.
Malaysia’s World No. 13 mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing also had to dig deep to progress to the Bitburger semi-finals, beating local shuttlers Marvin Emil Seidel/Birgit Michels of Germany 21-18, 20-22, 21-14 in 61 minutes. Tan/Lai will face the husband and wife pair and No. 1 seeds Chris and Gabby Adcock Britain in the semi-finals.
In men’s singles, tournament favorite and No. 3 seed Marc Zwiebler couldn’t find his rhythm to go down 15-21, 21-16, 15-21 to India’s Sourabh Varma. In other men’s quarter-finals, last week’s French Open winner No. 4 seed Shi Yuqi of China needed only 58 minutes to see off No. 5 seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 16-21, 21-14, 21-14.
Sourabh Varma will play Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the semi-finals while Shi Yuqi will battle Sameer Verma of India on Saturday.
