KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — National men’s doubles professional shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi suffered another quarter-final exit after going down 15-21, 9-21 to Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the Malaysia Open badminton championships at the Axiata Arena here tonight.

World number 12 Yew Sin-Ee Yi were no match for the Japanese pair, champions of the 2022 edition, who emerged victorious in just 34 minutes.

This is the Malaysian pair’s eighth defeat in 10 outings against the 2021 world champions and the second time they have crashed out at the same stage after last year’s edition.

Commenting on tonight’s match, Yew Sin said the Japanese pair had no problem reading their game.

"That made it difficult for us to attack the front court, and our defence was in tatters too. We did not expect them to return all our shots and we also committed too many unforced errors,” he said while confirming that they will not be competing in the Badminton Asia Team Championship in Shah Alam on February 13-18.

Ee Yi, meanwhile, hopes to avenge their defeat in front of the home fans when they meet Hoki-Kobayashi again in the first round of next week’s India Open.

"Although reaching the quarter-finals of this Super 1000 tournament can be considered a good start and one that will motivate us, we know that that’s not enough because we expected to go further. We need to work harder,” said Ee Yi, who only recently recovered from a right knee injury.

Yew Sin-Ee Yi marched into the last eight after defeating world number five Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-10, 11-21, 24-22 yesterday.

In tomorrow’s semi-finals, Hoki-Kobayashi will face world number one Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang after the Chinese pair eliminated defending champions Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 16-21, 21-17, 21-18 in another last-eight tie.

Fajar-Muhammad Rian, winner of two World Championships bronze medals, attributed their defeat to their failure to control the pace in the second and third games.

"In the second game, we were in too much of a hurry to win points and couldn’t control the game. In the third game, we played into their hands by following their quick pace. We should have been more patient and controlled the match tempo.

"We want to thank all the supporters from Malaysia and Indonesia who spurred us on just now, we apologise because we were not good enough,” he said. — Bernama