Defending champion Lee Zii Jia was defeated in three games at the Arctic Open quarter-final in Vantaa, Finland. (EPA Images pic)
PETALING JAYA: Lee Zii Jia’s hopes of defending the Arctic Open title ended when Japan’s world No 14 Koki Watanabe defeated the defending champion in three games in the quarter-final in Vantaa, Finland, tonight.
Watanabe, who knocked out Zii Jia in the first round of the China Open last month, was in control throughout the match, beating the world No 4 by 13-21, 21-13, 12-21.
With this, the Japanese player has beaten Zii Jia in all their three encounters so far. Watanabe will face either the fast-rising French star Alex Laner or Taiwan’s World No 10 Chou Tien Chen who will be playing in another quarter-final.
Zii Jia appeared to be labouring through the first game as Watanabe was returning most of his shots with ease. Watanabe raced ahead 15-9 in 11 minutes before Zii Jia attempted a comeback but it was not good enough to stop the Japanese from winning 21-15 in 23 minutes.
The Malaysian returned with much vigour in the second game to take a commanding 11-3 lead at the break in 10 minutes as he forced Watanabe into errors. Zii Jia piled on the points to 16-5 but a sudden push by Watanabe saw him taking five straight points to narrow the deficit to 16-9.
But Zii Jia stopped him and with some crosscourt smashes and accurate placings he won the game 21-13 in 20 minutes to force a rubber.
However, a revitalised Watanabe raced to a quick 4-1 lead on resumption as Zii Jia made some unforced errors and the Malaysian trailed all the way as Watanabe dictated the pace to take the match.
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