KUALA LUMPUR: Professional mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying marched into the semifinals of the Japan Open after defeating third seeds Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino.
The Malaysians, who are fifth seeds, were made to work hard by the host to win 21-18, 22-20 in the quarterfinals today.
“I am very satisfied with our performance, even though it took us an hour to defeat them in two games,” said Goh.
“We felt some nerves when we were leading because if we lost fans would see it as us not being able to close the match.”
The Rio Olympics silver medallists will next face second seeds from China Wang Yilyu-Huang Dongping on Saturday.
“We hope we can defeat the Chinese pair, it won’t be easy though. We will do our best against them,” Goh added.
Wang and Huang defeated German pair Mark Lamsfuss-Isabel Herttrich 21-10, 21-18 in their quarterfinal match.