Lee Zii Jia beat Jeon Hyeok-jin 21-11, 21-9 but his efforts were not enough to prevent Malaysia from losing 1-3 to South Korea.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's fine run in the Sudirman Cup came to an end after the shuttlers went down 1-3 to South Korea in the semi-finals in Suzhou, China on Saturday (May 20).
National mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, who had won all their matches before the last four, had a bright start against world No. 5 Seo Seung-jae-Chae Yu-jung by winning the first game 21-11 but could not continue their momentum and lost the next two games 13-21, 7-21.
Lee Zii Jia then gave Malaysia the first point after easily beating Jeon Hyeok-jin 11-21, 9-21 in the men's singles in just 35 minutes.
In the women's singles, K. Letshanaa was surprisingly fielded instead of the country's top player Goh Jin Wei and the former lost out 10-21, 13-21 to world No. 2 An Se-young to hand back the advantage to the Koreans.
Men's doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were then tasked with saving the tie but they could not rise to the occasion and went down 12-21, 11-21 to Kim Won-ho-Na Sung-seung to give the Koreans the victory.
Despite the defeat, Malaysia had still achieved the target set by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to reach the last four.
It was also only the third time that Malaysia had won bronze in the Sudirman Cup since the tournaments inception in 1989 after also finishing as semi-finalists in 2009 and 2021.
