Unheralded Leong Jun Hao emerged Malaysia’s hero in the Thomas Cup quarterfinals, swinging the tie his team’s way to help them get the better of Japan and take a last-four place against China.
Malaysia had entered the Thomas Cup with proven strength in first singles (Lee Zii Jia) and the two doubles, but somewhat lean in their second and third singles in terms of past achievement; Leong however blew away his higher-ranked opponent in just 35 minutes, 21-13 21-10. That was the edge Malaysia needed.
“I prepared as if it were my last match,” said Leong. “I told myself to fight for every point. My opponent had more pressure than me, so I didn’t find the match difficult to control. I just had to maintain the pressure on him.”
That built on the win in the first singles, in which Lee Zii Jia had dealt similar treatment to Kenta Nishimoto. Malaysia nearly took the first men’s doubles as well, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik involved in a crackling encounter with Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi. The Malaysians almost stole the match from 14-19 down in the third, but the Japanese sneaked a win at the end to draw their team level.
Following Leong’s takedown of Watanabe, Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin staged a comeback after losing the opening game to Akira Koga/Taichi Saito. The Malaysians’ 18-21 21-15 21-12 win thus made redundant the last scheduled match, between Kento Momota and Justin Hoh.
In the top quarter, favourites China saw off defending champions India by the same margin.
India did stretch China in the first two matches, but Shi Yu Qi (against HS Prannoy) and Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang (against Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty) stayed steady as the match wore on.
Lakshya Sen kept the challenge alive beating Li Shi Feng, but it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Indians in the second doubles, with scratch combination Dhruv Kapila/Sai Pratheek against He Ji Ting/Ren Xiang Yu. The match was the shortest of the tie, with the Chinese wrapping it up in 34 minutes.
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