Indonesia Masters: Pearly-Thinaah into semis as Zii Jia and Co. crash out

Tan-Thinaah were having a decent season so far with two quarter-finals and a semis showing prior to this event.

The world number 10 pair had also shown plenty of resilience to recover from a game down to win their last eight encounter on Thursday, and came into this contest confident of a fourth consecutive win over Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajonglai.

The sixth seeds may have expected a tougher challenge from the higher-ranked Thais, but they comfortably secured the 21-11, 21-16 win in 44 minutes.

Tan-Thinaah now go on to face Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadila for a place in the final.

In the men’s singles, Lee’s 15-match unbeaten run since the Badminton Asia Championships came to an end at the hands of Anthony Ginting.

The Indonesian, however, was made to work hard for 69 minutes before beating the Malaysian 18-21, 21-16, 21-15.

Lee took the lead after a closely fought first game, but Ginting levelled in the second after taking a healthy lead despite Lee’s efforts to close the gap towards the end as both shuttlers cancelled each other out.

Ginting, a two-time winner at this tournament, took control of the deciding game by controlling the majority of the rallies.

Lee’s efforts to rally back took a hit after he seemed to suffer a pull midway through the contest, which hampered his movement leaving Ginting to clinch victory in front of a boisterous home crowd.

Meanwhile, fourth seeds Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik unexpectedly lost to China’s Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang 21-16, 13-21, 17-21 in 49 minutes.

The Malaysians were expected to overcome their opponents who made the main draw via the qualifiers, but did not find any sort of sustained chemistry.

Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin were the final Malaysians in action, and despite taking the first game, they lost 21-10, 11-21, 18-21 to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.