Lee Zii Jia secured his third semi-final appearance of the year after he prevailed in a nail-biting contest against Ng Tze Yong 17-21, 26-24, 21-19 at the Australian Open.

The all-Malaysian contest turned out to be an explosive one and served up great entertainment at the Quaycentre in Sydney on Friday.

Ng, who came into this match having beaten Jonatan Christie, was full of confidence as he strode into the lead by taking the first game.

The world number 21 was on course to end his last-eight jinx as he held two match points in the second game, but Lee persevered and managed to drag this match to a decider.

Lee looked like he was going to breeze through that final game with a 11-4 lead, but his habit of committing flurry on unforced errors came back to haunt him as Ng capitalised on to take the lead at 15-13.

The score hung in the balance at 19-19, but Lee, as he did in the previous round, found the extra push to seal the match and celebrated with a little dance and roar.

It was nothing more than he deserved, especially having to keep his emotions in check when he remonstrated with the umpire in added time of the second game to contest a shot by Ng.

The Kedah-born would have been relieved to win a second consecutive tightly contested affair, to put him in the right frame of mind when he faces China’s Weng Hong Yang for a place in the final on Saturday.

For Ng, it was a commendable effort despite falling short in his fifth quarter-finals this year.

Lee is the only Malaysian left in this Super 500 event after Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik suffered a 15-21, 17-21 defeat against Lu Ching-yao-Yang Po-han.