Sudirman Cup: Malaysia stun Indonesia 3-2 to storm into semis
STADIUM ASTRO
October 2, 2021 02:57 MYT
Malaysia stunned Indonesia 3-2 in an absorbing Sudirman Cup quarter-finals action that lasted almost six hours until the wee hours of Saturday morning.
Their victory would go down as one of the Sudirman Cup classics, and their reward was a semi-final showdown against Japan on Saturday.
Malaysia took the lead through men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, who put on an outrageous attacking display to outclass world number one pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-12, 21-15.
Astonishingly, the national pair only needed 33 minutes for the straight game success over the Indonesians, whom they kept completely on the back foot with a dominant performance throughout.
But Indonesia were back level through Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who overcame S.Kisona 22-20, 18-21, 21-19 in an endurance women's singles battle.
Kisona, who turned 23 on Friday, proved a resilient fighter against the world number 21, even reducing to 19-20 after trailing 13-18 in the deciding match, but lacked the cutting edge to force deuce.
Next up was the men’s singles affair, and Lee Zii Jia did not disappoint as he restored Malaysia’s lead in style after taming Anthony Ginting 21-11, 21-16 in 44-minutes.
Lee upped his game after the defeat to Kento Momota on Thursday, and left Anthony reeling to surrender rather tamely.
Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah were next up against the reigning Olympic champions in Greysia Polli-Apriyani Rahayu, and they put on a 90-minute battle that finally swung in the favour of the Indonesians 22-20, 17-21, 21-18.
The young pair were far from overawed by the occasions, and looked to turn the tables on their higher ranked opponents with immense work-rate and understanding with each other.
Greysia-Apriyani edged the opening game 22-20, before the young Malaysians stormed back to level at 21-17.
Tan-Thinaah managed to save six match points in the deciding game, but Greysia-Apriyani eventually crossed the line with a 21-18 victory.
Mixed doubles pair Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See turned heroes for the national contingent after sealing a 21-19, 9-21, 21-16 victory over Praveen Jordan-Melati Oktavianti.
They will now go on to face Japan in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Japan had overcome Chinese Taipei 3-1 in the quarter-finals.
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