KUALA LUMPUR: Former national men’s doubles pair, Hoon Thien How and Lim Khim Wah became the country’s sole survivor in the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold Open as three others crashed out of the tournament.
Hoon and Lim who currently play for a local private club, however, were forced to play in rubber-set before pulling off a suprise victory against third seed, Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China in 21-15, 14-21 and 21-19 in the quarter-finals today, according to the Badminton World Federation’s website;www.bwfbadminton.org.
They are slated to meet seventh seed, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the semi-final match, tomorrow.
The Indonesian pair moved into the last four of the US$120,000 (RM430,876) tournament after earning a hard-fought 19-21, 23-21 and 21-18 victory against scratch pair of Netherlands’ Ruud Bosch and Huang Po Jui of Chinese Taipei in another quarter-final encounter.
Another Malaysian pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong who were the fifth seeds, suffered a major upset after they went down 20-22 and 13-21 to the unseeded pair, Markis Kido and Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra of Indonesia.
Two Malaysian players in the men’s singles event — Goh Soon Huat and Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif also bowed out from the tournament after losing to their respective opponents.
Goh who was the 16th seed, went down 18-21 and 13-21 to seasoned campaigner, Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand while Mohamad Arif, a former national shuttler, lost 15-21 and 16-21 to Bin Qiao of China. — BERNAMA