Soong Joo Ven dished out one of the biggest upsets of the Korea Masters second round when he disposed of fifth seed Heo Kwang-hee 21-11, 21-19 in 40 minutes to check into the last eight.

Regardless of the result on Friday, this would be Soong’s best run this year, having only made it as far as the second round prior.

The triumph over Heo on his home turf would do the Malaysian's confidence a world of good, especially with the knowledge of the quality of his opponent, who famously eliminated Kento Momota from the Tokyo Olympics last year.

Soong also proved a point with the victory after the independent shuttler was overlooked for the upcoming Asia Badminton Championships in Manila later this month.

The world number 68 next faces Misha Zilberman in the quarter-finals.

Misha and his 62-year-old mother Svetlana had earlier lost 5-21, 8-21 to Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai in the mixed doubles.

Goh-Lai, the only Malaysians accompanying Soong to the last eight, next take on the Singaporean husband-wife pairing of Terry Hee-Tan Wei Han for a place in the semis.

The other local shuttlers all saw their stints in Gwangju come to an end.

Goh Jin Wei went down fighting 22-20, 7-21, 12-21 against Wang Zhi Yi in the women’s singles, while the scratch combination of Chan Peng Soon-Toh Ee Wei lost 18-21, 14-21 to Chinese pair Zheng Si Wei-Zhang Shu Xian.

In the men’s doubles, Goh V Shem-Low Juan Shen battled hard before succumbing 21-16, 14-21, 22-24 against Hiroki Okamura-Masayuki Onodera, while Tan Kian Meng-Tan Wee Kiong lost 17-21, 21-9, 13-21 to Choi Sol-gyu-Kim Won-ho.