The world No 3 pair struggled briefly before sealing a 21-12, 12-21, 21-17 victory in 60 minutes at the Shenzhen Arena.

Ee Wei has reportedly been battling a flu, with Tang Jie carrying much of the workload throughout the match.

In the semi-finals tomorrow, Tang Jie-Ee Wei will take on either China’s world No 1 Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dongping or the 7th ranked Guo Xin Wa-Chen Fang Hui.

Tang Jie-Ee Wei, who created Malaysian badminton history by becoming the country’s first mixed doubles pair to win the World Championships title, will achieve another first if they win the China Masters as no Malaysian has won any title in the history of the tournament.

They have yet to win a BWF World Tour title this season as the World Championships is not part of the series which will culminate with the World Tour finals in December.

The champions in the doubles categories at the China Masters will take home US$92,500 (RM387,624), the runners-up US$43,750 (RM183,336), semi-finalists US$17,500 (RM73,334) and quarter-finalists US$4,062 (RM17,021).