WORLD No 1 Lee Chong Wei stayed on course to winning his fifth super series of the year following his victory over Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the Indonesia Open quarter-finals yesterday.
Chong Wei, 31, who has already won the Malaysia Open, All England, India and Japan Opens this year, got off to a slow start but regained his rhythm in the second game to send the Danish No 2 packing with a 21-18, 21-11 win in just 40 minutes.
“Chong Wei, played well today, and you can see that he has a lot of confidence in him.
“He must however, be wary, because he will be meeting the same opponents, who are constantly aiming for an upset. Chong Wei has got to be careful of that,” said national singles coach Tey Seu Bock.
The defending champion, who is treating this tournament as a final warm-up before the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next month, will play Japan’s Kenichi Tago in the semi-final today.
The Japanese World No 4, defeated Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-18, 21-11 in the other quarter-final match.
Chong Wei’s China rival, World No 2 Chen Long is also through to the last four, and will square off against Denmark’s No 1 Jan Jorgensen today.
Meanwhile, a broken racquetproved costly for scratch pair Tan Boon Heong-Tan Wee Kiong, who bowed out yesterday.
The Malaysian duo, who have only been paired for this tournament, fought hard before going down 15-21, 21-6, 21-19 to South Korea’s sixth seeds Lee Yong Dae-Yoo Yeon Seong.
“We ran out of luck, we fought so hard and came close and my racquet had to break at the last shot.
“It’s no excuse I know, but we will just have to work harder to do better next time.
“This is our first tournament, and we lacked experience when it came to crucial points of the match,” said Wee Kiong, who will be partnering Goh V Shem in the Australia Open on June 24-29. By Fabian Peter
