Yesterday, Zii Jia overcame a spirited fightback from sparring partner Liew Daren in the second game to pull off a 21-16, 13-21, 21-14 win in 51 minutes at the Impact Arena in Bangkok.
Standing in his way is China’s Li Shifeng who had to come through a qualifying round en route to reaching his first Super 500-level tournament final. The 49th ranked Chinese had to slog for 93 minutes in the other semi-final match to subdue Japan’s Kodai Naraoka 21-19, 16-21, 21-19. Surprisingly, Shifeng has a better record, having beaten the Malaysian at the 2018 China Masters in their only meeting before.He has been unbeaten since losing in the semi-finals of the All-England in March. He lifted the Asian title for the first time in Manila and did not drop a singles match in the recent Thomas Cup Finals.Meanwhile, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik went down 19-21, 14-21 to Indonesians Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto in just 34 minutes in the semi-finals.