Denmark Open: Zii Jia overcomes Kean Yew to reach final

Lee Zii Jia marched into the Denmark Open final after a straight-game victory over Loh Kean Yew, booking his third final appearance of the 2022 season.

The world number three needed just under 40 minutes to secure the 21-18, 21-15 win over the former world champion.

In doing so, Lee, who faces China's Shi Yu Qi on Sunday, also saved the blushes of the Malaysian contingent after three doubles pairs had all crashed out in their earlier matches.

The anticipated Lee-Loh encounter was expected to be a more competitive affair, given how the Singaporean was so impressive to beat world number one Viktor Axelsen on Friday.

But Lee, who gave away easy points in his hard fought win over Jonatan Christie in the last eight, turned in a fine performance.

The Malaysian altered his game against Loh, opting to play more at the net and only executing smashes when he got an opening.

The strategy worked like a charm, as Loh had no answer throughout the contest except for one brief period in the second game.

Earlier in the day, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai couldn't replicate their performance against second seeds Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino as they lost 16-21, 22-24 to Chinese pair Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong.

World champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were next to exit in the men's doubles as they went down fighting against Indonesians Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo-Marcus Fernaldi Gideon 17-21, 21-13, 17-21.

Both pairs had executed their game plan well to cancel each other out until the closing stages of the deciding game.

Sanjaya-Gideon took the gamble by upping the tempo to a scorching pace, to which the Malaysians failed to cope with and lost after 51 minutes.

Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi followed them out the door after they were clinically upstaged by another Indonesian pair in Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto, who won 21-16, 22-20.

The Malaysians deployed a counter-attacking strategy that seemed to pay off late in the game, but Alfian played a crucial role at the front court to secure the win.