KUALA LUMPUR: The fairytale run of national men's doubles Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani at the Denmark Open came to an end on Saturday when they crashed out in the semi-finals.
After scoring upsets over world No 10 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India and world No 7 Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia en route to reaching the last four, the world No 26 finally succumbed to a 21-11, 19-21, 21-18 defeat in the hands of Denmark's Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
The Danes had the backing of their home fans but Sze Fei-Izzuddin saw no shame in their loss.
In fact, the Malaysians are already looking ahead to this week's French Open in Paris following their gallant run in Odense.
"We weren't at our best in the first game but we always knew we had nothing to lose coming into this match," said Izzuddin, who together with Sze Fei, were part of the Malaysian side who reached the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup in Aarhus last week.
"We were not affected by the home crowd support (for Astrup-Rasmussen), we just focused more on our attack in the second and third games.
"This is not the end, we look forward to the French Open next," added Sze Fei.
The defeat means Malaysia's interest has ended in the Super 1000 event.
Astrup-Rasmussen will face Japan's Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the final on Sunday.
The in-form Japanese duo had to claw back from a game down before seeing off Germany's Mark Lamfuss-Marvin Seidel 20-22, 21-18, 21-16 in the other semi-final.
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Men's singles: Viktor Axelsen (Den) bt Lee Cheuk Yiu (Hkg) 21-9, 21-11; Kento Momota (Jpn) bt Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) 21-7, 21-12;
Doubles: Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Den) bt Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani 21-11, 19-21, 21-18; Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) bt Mark Lamfuss-Marvin Seidel (Ger) 20-22, 21-18, 21-16;
Women's singles: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt He Bing Jiao (Chn) 23-21, 22-20; An Se Young (Kor) bt Kirsty Gilmour (Sco) 21-13, 12-21, 21-16;
Doubles: Lee So Hee-Shin Seung Chan (Kor) bt Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong (Kor) 16-21, 21-18, 21-16; Huang Dong Ping-Zheng Yu (Chn) bt Jonkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai (Tha) 21-10, 21-15;
Mixed doubles: Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Jpn) bt Wang Yi Lyu-Huang Dong Ping (Chn) 16-21, 21-17, 21-17; Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Tha) bt Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti (Ina) 16-21, 21-17, 22-20.
