The defending champions had to dig deep into their reserves before overcoming world No 5 pair Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri 21-13, 17-21, 22-20 in a match lasting nearly an hour.

It was the first meeting between the two pairs.

In tomorrow’s semi-final, Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin will play Taiwan’s Liu Kuang Heng-Yang Po Han, who ended Malaysian pair Nur Azriyn Ayub-Tan Wee Kiong’s fairytale run at the championships in another hard-fought three-game encounter.

Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin, the top seeds, started off strongly to win the first game easily, but the Indonesians came back strongly in the second game despite trailing most of the way.

It was a test of nerves for both sides towards the end of the decider when they saved one match point apiece before Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin pulled through in a nail-biting finish.

For world No 26 pair Azriyn-Wee Kiong, it was a heartbreaking result as they had match point twice in the second game, but the tenacious Kuang Heng-Yang Po staved off the challenge to force a decider.

The Taiwanese pair eventually triumphed 18-21, 25-23, 21-17 in 68 minutes.

Azriyn-Wee Kiong had made headlines earlier when they knocked out former world champions Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the second round.

In the opener, they defeated another higher ranked pair, Christo Popov-Toma Junior Popov of France.