KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 — National singles player Lee Zii Jia’s hopes of defending his Taiwan Open crown ended his in the second round today.
The 21-year-old, ranked 13th in the world, suffered a shock defeat to 31st ranked Indonesian player, Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-16, 22-20.
Zii Jia, who was seeded fourth, lost the first set and then dragged the second to give him some home of forcing the rubber, but tiredness got the better of him.
“I have to accept that I lost today. It could be mental fatigue as its been back to back tournaments right up to the Indonesian Open for me.
“I am going take this one as part of my experience. I have a week more to prepare for the China Open and a few more tournaments. I am hoping to refresh my mindset and start all over again,” he said when contacted.
Meanwhile, another national singles player, Cheam June Wei, brought some joy to the Malaysian camp when he qualified for the quarterfinals after defeating host country player Lin Yu Hsien.
June Wei who had an outstanding run in the earlier rounds, however, had to slog hard for his win today, before overcoming his opponent 17-21, 21-18, 21-18 in 71 minutes.
The 78th ranked player in the world is expected to meet a tougher opponent, Chou Tien Chen, also from Taiwan, who defeated Sourabh Verma from India 21-12, 21-10.
Also going through to the quarterfinal were national doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik who easily disposed Indonesian pair Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pangkaryanira-Ade Yusuf Santoso 21-17, 21-15.
The mixed doubles professional pair of Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, meanwhile, took 51 minutes to down their Vietnamese opponents, Do Tuan Duc-Pham Nhu Thao 21-17 19-21 21-17.
However, another national pair, Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See had no such luck as they lost to third seeded Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja from Indonesia 21-18, 21-13. — Bernama
