BANGKOK: It will be another heavyweight battle as Malaysia take on Indonesia in the Thomas Cup quarter-finals here today.
Malaysia, who were hoping to avoid the seeded teams, fell short in their bid to finish as group winners, when they went down 3-2 to defending champions Denmark in the final Group D tie yesterday.
The tie against the Danes was a thriller with former World No 1 Lee Chong Wei giving Malaysia a morale boosting lead with a superb 21-9, 21-19 win over reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Denmark, however, levelled the score when their top men's pair of Mads Pieler Kolding-Mads Conrad Petersen saw off 2016 Rio Olympic Games silver medallists Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong 22-24, 21-15, 21-15.
Malaysia then took the lead again, when youngster Lee Zii Jia put up a rousing performance, clawing back from 16-6 down in the second game to upset Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-18, 21-18.
"I didn't think too much. I wanted my debut to be a memorable one, where I could help my teammates. I guess, in the second game, I threw my opponent off his focus, as I was running to collect every shot,” said Zii Jia.
Malaysia's joy was, however, shortlived, when Denmark's scratch pair Mathias Boe-Mathias Christiansen, who still enjoy a perfect winning record at the Thomas Cup, ousted Aaron Chia-Teo Ee Yi 19-21, 21-10, 21-18 to level the score at 2-2.
It was all up to Iskandar to save the day for Malaysia, but the 27-year-old could not end his losing streak against Jan Jorgensen, who came back from a game down to claim victory for Denmark with a 16-21, 21-17, 21-14 win in the third singles.
Team manager Ng Chin Chai said: "I believe we lost to a better team. We had expected it to be this close, but they (Denmark) were higher ranked and I think the team gave a very good account of themselves.
"It is not a failure. I hope the team can now motivate themselves, especially after such a close fight with Denmark. I want them to motivate themselves to come back and beat Indonesia."
On the quarter-final draw, Chin Chai said: "I think from the four seeded pairs, playing against Indonesia gives us a 50-50 chance."
The last time Malaysia won the Thomas Cup was back in 1992 in Kuala Lumpur. The quarter-final against Indonesia is at 8pm today (Malaysian time).
THOMAS CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW:
China vs Taiwan, Indonesia vs Malaysia, Japan vs France, Denmark vs South Korea
UBER CUP DRAW:
Japan vs Taiwan, South Korea vs Canada, Indonesia vs Thailand
China vs Denmark