CHENGDU, May 2 — Malaysia stormed into the semi-finals of the 2024 Thomas Cup today after sending 2014 champions Japan packing with a 3-1 win in a quarter-final match at the Chengdu High Tech-Zone Sports Centre in Chengdu, China.
Malaysia will face China in the semi-finals on Saturday (May 4) after the Chinese beat defending champion India 3-1 in another quarter-final encounter.
The win which ended an eight-year, came about when the country’s second men’s doubles pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani turned heroes for the team after recovering from a game down against Akira Koga-Taichi Saito to deliver the winning point in the fourth match and send Malaysia to the last four, thus keeping the country’s hopes of ending a 32-year-old title drought.
The mysterious absence of Japan’s main singles player Kodai Naraoka had boosted the national team’s confidence, particularly as professional men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia kicked off today’s highly anticipated encounter in style by outplaying Kenta Nishimoto for the first point.
Lee had a fine start when he raced to a 11-9 lead and took control after the interval before the world number 10 went on to win the opening game 21-13.
A series of wayward shots and faults at net play took the toll on the Japanese as Lee enjoyed a handsome 15-point lead at 17-2 in the second game and closed it out with a whopping 21-3 victory in 33 minutes to put Malaysia 1-0 ahead.
In the second match, Malaysia’s top men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik endured a closely fought first game against Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi. Both pairs traded points until 17-17 before the Malaysians prevailed 21-18.
However, the Malaysians let slip their first game victory, allowing the world number six Japanese pair to keep their cool and level the tie for Japan after taking the next two games, 21-14, 21-19 and in the process, extend their head-to-head record to 8-2.
Malaysia reclaimed the lead when the country’s third singles and world number 37 player Leong Jun Hao stunned Koki Watanabe, ranked 22nd, in the third match.
The 24-year-old was unrattled after trailing 1-4, as he slowly built his confidence to equalise at 9-9 and subdue his opponent 21-13.
Leong was truly on fire in the second set, leading Watanabe 18-8 and kept piling the pressure on with a sublime offensive display to dismiss the 25-year-old 21-10 and contribute the second point for Malaysia.
Buoyed by Leong’s win, Goh-Izzuddin put up a sizzling performance as they turned the tables on the Japanese pair after losing 18-21 in the opening game to fight back and triumph in the next two games.
The Malaysians displayed a high level of fighting spirit to drag the game into the decider after taking the second game 21-15. With confidence growing in every rally, the duo wrapped up the tie 21-12 when Koga failed to return Goh’s shot in the match that lasted 66 minutes.
Today’s result marked Malaysia’s second consecutive win over the Japanese after they edged them 3-2 during the last Group D action in Bangkok two years ago.
The last time Malaysia entered the last four was in the 2016 edition before they came up short of eventual champions Denmark 2-3 in Kunshan, China.
Malaysia opened the Group D matches with two massive 5-0 victories against Hong Kong on Saturday (April 27) and against Algeria on Sunday (April 28), but lost the chance to top the group after losing the tie 2-3 to European powerhouse Denmark on Tuesday (April 30).
— Bernama
