Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Lee Yen Wei and Loh Zi Heng booked their places in the quarterfinals of the Boys’ Under-16 of the Affin-100PLUS Junior Elite Tour Grand Finals 2023 following the end of the group matches earlier today.
Yen Wei, who was made to work hard in the rubber by Selangor’s Tiew Wei Jie yesterday, faced no such difficulty in his final Group E tie against Nixon Ang Jia Shen from Penang.
It took Yen Wei just 35 minutes to wrap things up for his double win in the group with a 21-17 21-17 demolition of Nixon for his place in the next round.
Yen Wei’s opponent in the quarterfinals tomorrow would be none other than Sabah’s hotshot Datu Anif Isaac Datu Asrah – the winner of Group B.
However, the 16-year-old Datu Anif did not have it all his way in his final game of the group today when he was stretched all the way to the third set by a determined Wong Jia Lun from Kuala Lumpur 15-21 24-22 24-22 in an hour-long duel.
In the meantime, Zi Heng was also made to work hard before booking his passage into the next round as Group D winner.
Zi Heng, who disposed of Sabah’s Voo Jun Yu with ease the previous day, had to pull out all the stops against Johor’s Chen Jia Le.
Jia Le won the first set 22-20 before Zi Heng fought back to win the next two sets 21-16, 21-12 to win the group.
In the quarterfinals, Zi Heng will take on Roslie Razeeq Danial from Selangor, who emerged as the Group F winner with three wins from three matches played.
The 16-year-old from Kajang was a straight set winner against Ryan Ee Jian Han from Melaka in the first group tie and then BAM’s Jin Khoo in the second match.
And today, Roslie scalped BAM’s Kong Wei Xiang 22-20 21-19 in a battle that lasted a good 45 minutes to announce his arrival into the quarterfinals in style.
