World junior champion Goh Jin Wei gave another composed and confident to march into the women’s singles semi-final in the USD350,000 Perodua Malaysia Masters at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil on Friday.
The 18-year-old packed off China’s 22-year-old He Bingjiao with in straight games 21-15, 21-16 in 38 minutes – giving the home fans plenty to cheer as she kept Malaysia’s flag flying in the women’s singles after the early exits of Soniia Cheah and Lee Ying Ying.
The 100PLUS Ambassador and Malaysia’s emerging badminton star in the women’s singles, has been on a hot streak since October last year when she became the first Malaysian to win the gold in the Youth Olympics (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and regained the world junior title in Markham, Canada a month later.
Defending champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand stands in Jin Wei’s way for a place in Sunday’s final. Ratchanok, the former World No 1 and currently ranked No 8, stunned World No 1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in straight games 21-13, 21-14.
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Ā India’s newly-wed Saina Nehwal, will meet Spain’s Carolina Marin in the semi-finals. The Indian seventh seed upset second seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-18, 23-21 in a 48-minute match. Carolina won 21-13, 21-13 against Korea’s Sung Ji-hyun.
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Mean’s doubles Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi gave Malaysia a smashing start in the quarter-finals.
The young Malaysia pair, ranked 27, displayed attacking badminton in theirĀ 21-19, 21-16 win over Japan’s Word No 3 and second seeds Takeshi Komura-Keigo Sonoda in 39 minutes for a place in the last four.
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In the process Yew Sin-Ee Yi extended their head to head count to 2-0, having beaten the Japanese 21-14, 21-17 in last year’s Asian Games in Indonesia in a Round of 16 match in August.
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Yew Sin-Ee Yi will play the winners of the quarter-final tie between Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen which is played later. – BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
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