BIRMINGHAM: Shuttlers Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari continued to show that Malaysian independent players are here to stay with their good performances in the All-England.

On Thursday, the KLRC-sponsored Zakry-Fairuzizuan took their chances well to beat Indonesians Ricky Karanda Suwardi-Mohd Ulinnuha of Indonesia 21-19, 21-15 to reach the quarter-finals.

They will take on China’s Liu Xiaolong-Qiu Zihan, who dumped top seeds Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen of Denmark for a place in the last eight.

For Zakry-Fairuzizuan, this is their first Super Series quarter-final appearance since turning pro and – playing together as a pair – in 2011.

Zakry and Fairuzizuan had made it to the semi-finals of the All-England before but with different partners – Gan Teik Chai and Lin Woon Fui respectively - during their days under the Badminton Association of Malaysia.

It’s tougher being independent players but Zakry-Fairuzizuan are proof that if there’s a will, there’s a way – despite the lack of financial backings, facilities and sparring partners.

Zakry, who got married last year, said the breakthrough would give them a huge dose of confidence.

“I took a two-month break because of my marriage (in November) and when I returned, Fairuz and I didn’t achieve any notable results in the Korean and Malaysian Opens. We didn’t give up.”

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