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.