Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadiki and Leong Jun Hao kept the Malaysian flag flying in the men’s singles when they made the semifinals of the BERGAMOT KL Masters Malaysia Super 100 2023 in contrasting fashion here today at the Titiwangsa Stadium.
While Aidil Sholeh was made to work into the rubber set before winning 21-18, 5-21, 21-13 over Singapore’s Justin Teh, Jun Hao faced little difficulty in booking his slot to the next round in straight set.
“I was not focused in the first set when I followed his rhythm a little too much but I recovered to win the game,” said the winner of the Indonesia International Challenge 2023 last month in Surabaya.
“I was slow in the second set and that led to the loss. But in the rubber, I upped the pace and that gave me the win and a place in the next round.”
In the semifinals tomorrow, the 23-year-old will take on the tournament’s top seed Lee Chia-Hao from Chinese Taipei.
The world’s no. 34 shuttler had to pull out all the stops before beating Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan 21-16, 21-17 in 43 minutes in his quarterfinal clash this evening.
“The plan is to go all out in every match. I don’t want to think too much about anything as that will only put me in a tough spot,” quipped Aidil.
On the other hand, Jun Hao had little difficulty in disposing Kuo Kuan-Lin from Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-15 to make the cut to the final four of the tournament.
The second ranked Jun Hao will take South Korea’s Choi Ji-hoon, who had to go through the qualifiers, next.
“Winning it in two sets is very satisfactory. My focus was on point to point and to minimise mistakes,” added Jun Hao.
“I want to recover well today and look forward to the next match. I just have to keep focused. My target was the semifinals. Now that I’m here, why not go all the way.”
