KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Malaysia’s professional shuttler Soong Joo Ven advanced to the quarter-finals of the Korea Masters after springing a surprise by defeating host shuttler Heo Kwang Hee at the Gwangju Yeonju Stadium in Gwangju, South Korea today.

World’s 68th seed Joo Ven won the second-round match in a straight-set 21-11, 21-19 in just 40 minutes.

The 26-year-old player is scheduled to play against Misha Zilberman in the final eight round tomorrow after the Israeli shuttler showed his opponent Kalle Koljonen of Finland the exit by winning their mach 21-12, 19-21, 22-20.

Meanwhile, mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie also advanced to the quarter-finals after easily defeating Misha-Svetlana Zilberman of Israel 21-5, 21-8.

Soon Huat-Shevon will take on Terry Hee Yong Kai-Tan Wei Han from Singapore who had trounced the host pair Kim Young Hyuk-Kim Hye Jeong in a straight-set 22-20, 23-21.

However, luck was not on the tournament’s eighth seed mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Toh Ee Wei, as they were shown the exit after losing 18-21, 14-21 to Zheng Si Wei-Zhang Shu Xian from China.

Also stranded in the second round was former world youth champion Goh Jin Wei, who lost 22-20, 7-21, 12-21 to the world’s number 17 Wang Zhi Yi from China in the women’s singles category.

In the men’s doubles category, Goh V Shem-Low Juan Shen also lost to Hiroki Okamura-Masayuki Onodera of Japan in rubber game 21-16, 14-21, 22-24, while Tan Kian Meng-Tan Wee Kiong were shown the exit by Choi Solgyu-Kim Wonho of Korea with 17-21, 21-9, 13-21. — Bernama