KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 – Malaysia’s top men’s shuttler Lee Zii Jia lived dangerously in the second game before clinching a 21-13, 22-20 win over Thailand’s No 8 seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen in the quarter-finals at Hylo Badminton Open in Saarbrucken, Germany on Friday.
The 22-year-old second seed seemed to be cruising into the last four with a 21-13 win in the first game, winning points with his deceptive cross shots, punctured occasionally with his backhand smashes that often caught the Thai on the wrong foot.
However, Wangcharoen, came out blazing in the second game and a rubber game was on the cards.
The Thai grabbed a 16-6 lead before the Malaysian found his second win and reeled off 11 points in a row. The Thai refused to give up and it was 20-20 before Zii Jia wrapped it up at 22-20 in 41 minutes.
It was such a relief for Zii Jia who threw his racquet on the court that he let out a loud yell – probably to celebrate that he had saved himself the agony of a rubber game.
This is Zii Jia’s first semi-final on the European tour after reaching the quarter-finals in the Denmark Open in Odense and was a first round casualty in the French Open in Paris.
The reigning All-England champion will play the winner of the quarter-final tie between Hong Kong’s third seed Angus Ng Ka Long and India’s sixth seed K. Srikanth.
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