KUALA LUMPUR: Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See rose splendidly to the challenge as they delivered Malaysia's winning point in the 3-2 upset over former champions Indonesia in the Sudirman Cup in Vantaa, Finland on Friday.
With the score tied at 2-2, the odds were against the world No 27 mixed pair when they stepped on the court to face world No 4 Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti in the deciding tie.
But Pang Ron-Yee See put up a career-best performance to score a sensational 21-19, 9-21, 21-16 win to help Malaysia clinch a first ever win over Indonesia in the Sudirman Cup.
With the win, Malaysia emulated their 2009 success of reaching the semi-finals of the Sudirman Cup.
However, it is more meaningful this time as Malaysia are in Finland with mostly young shuttlers, who are being groomed for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
As a reward, Malaysia will return to court at 9pm (Malaysian time) on Saturday to face Japan in the semi-finals. The Malaysians were defeated 4-1 by the Kento Momota-led Japanese side in the group stage.
"We are really excited with this result as we were the underdogs against the stronger Indonesian pair. However, we were not afraid of their reputation and fought hard during the match," said Pang Ron.
"The women's doubles before us also inspired us as they were the lower-ranked pair like us and fought so hard.
"The first game was close until the end, but we lost focus in the second and struggled to get back in the game.
"But we heard our team cheering for us, and we wanted to win and make Malaysia proud as well, and we're really happy to be in the semi-finals."
It was certainly a rousing performance by the young Malaysian squad, who had started on the front foot when Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik crushed world No 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-12, 21-15 in the men's doubles.
Indonesia, however, levelled the score when Gregoria Mariska Tunjung narrowly edged S. Kisona 22-20, 18-21, 21-19 in the women's singles.
In the men's singles, captain Lee Zii Jia made amends for his poor showing against Momota by beating Olympic bronze medallist Anthony Ginting 21-11, 21-16.
Women's pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah nearly won the match for Malaysia as they went head-to-head with Olympic gold medallists Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu before succumbing to a 20-22, 21-17, 18-21 defeat after 91 minutes.
But that inspiring performance certainly set the stage for Pang Ron-Yee See to deliver their heroics.
Second seeds Japan had powered into the last four by beating Taiwan 3-1, with the points coming from Akane Yamaguchi (women's singles), Momota and Mayu Matsumoto-Misaki Matsutomo (women's doubles).
In the other semi-final, China will face South Korea.
Results
Q-Finals — China bt Denmark 3-2, South Korea bt Thailand 3-2, Japan bt Taiwan 3-1, Malaysia bt Indonesia 3-2.
Fixtures
S-Finals — China v South Korea (3pm), Malaysia v Japan (9pm)
* Malaysian time