The Malaysian badminton contingent will have a busy day trying to book a place in the final of the individual event at the 2021 SEA Games after three pairs booked their semi-finals berth in fairly comfortable fashion on Friday.

Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei and Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See are the two mixed doubles pairs seeing action on Saturday, with Cheah also needing to brace herself for double duty in the women’s doubles with Cheng Su Hui.

Fourth seeds Chen-Peck were impressive in their 21-19, 21-19 victory over Singapore husband pairing of Terry Hee-Tan Wei Han, who beat them at the India Open final earlier this year.

Chen-Peck’s 45-minute win earned them a showdown against top seeded Indonesians Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas Mentari.

Hoo-Cheah meanwhile comfortably won their last eight tie against Thai pair Chaloempon Charoenkitamorn-Laksika Kanlaha 21-8, 21-16 and next face another Indonesian pair Adnan Maulana-Mychelle Crhystine Bandaso.

In the day’s final match, Cheah-Cheng will be out to battle Thai pair Benyapa-Nuntakarn Aimsaard, after overcoming Philippines duo Airah Mae-Thea Marie 21-13, 21-11 in the last eight.

As for Malaysia’s challenge in the singles events, it ended with defeats to Lee Shun Yang and Siti Nurshuhaini to their Thai opponents.

Lee fell to a 11-21, 11-21 defeat against second seeded Kunvalut Vitidsarn, while Siti surrendered 17-21, 8-21 to top seed Pornpawee Chucowong.

Their loss meant Malaysia ultimately failed to defend gold medals in the men’s and women’s singles won by Lee Zii Jia and S. Kisona in 2019.