Justin Hoh played two matches in three hours at the Kumamoto Masters qualifiers, which he won to set-up an interesting first round clash against Lee Zii Jia.
In total, Hoh battled for 114-minutes on court at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium on Tuesday to secure his spot in the main draw of the Super 500 event.
In the first game, the national men’s singles shuttler was dominant to beat South Korea’s Jeon Hyeok-jin 21-15, 21-15 to move into the second round of the qualifiers.
He faced another South Korean Cho Geon-yeop who gave him a much tougher fight.
The 20-year-old had to dig deep into his reserves throughout the 76-minute contest, and did so in fine fashion to secure the 21-15, 20-22, 21-17 victory which takes him into the elite draw.
Against Lee, Hoh will come up against a countryman who is aiming to get his performance back on track since securing the Paris Olympics bronze medal three months ago.
Lee is also looking to secure his ticket to the season-finale World Tour Finals in December, and has not played competitively in a month having last featured at the Arctic Open where his campaign ended in the quarter-finals.
Another big result at the Kumamoto Masters saw national men’s doubles pair Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun beat French brothers Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov 21-18, 21-23, 21-19.
Man-Tee will most likely go on to face Indonesian third seeds Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto in the second round.
