The 21-year-old, who is ranked world No 39, defeated the two-time European Championship silver medallist 21-12, 21-19 in 40 minutes.

Popov is No 13 in the Badminton World Federation’s rankings.

Justin’s win sets up an all-Malaysian last-16 tie with his senior Leong Jun Hao, who beat Lee Zii Jia earlier today.

Justin’s performance has been improving since he finished as runner-up at the Macau Open last month.

In the qualifiers yesterday, he defeated Tharun Mannepalli, another higher-ranked player from India, 21-23, 21-13, 21-18.

Separately, both Malaysian mixed doubles pairs playing in the tournament cleared their first round matches today.

Married couple Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai came from behind to defeat Taiwan’s Ling Bing Wei-Lin Jhih Yun in three games, 13-21, 23-21, 21-8 to move into the last 16.

Tomorrow, the world No 8 pair will take on their juniors Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin who defeated Ukraine’s Oleksii Titov-Yevheniia Kantemyr 21-14, 21-14 in their opener.