It was a day of mental resilience for the Malaysian contingent as three doubles pairs were pushed to the wire before prevailing to check into the China Open quarter-finals on Thursday.

First, it was mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai who put on a sterling defensive display to oust English eighth seeds Marcus Ellis-Lauren Smith 18-21, 21-17, 22-20 in a 70-minute battle.

The victory was also their first quarter-finals appearance in three tournaments, which dated back to the Indonesia Open in July.

The world number 11 pair will now take on Thai fourth seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai for a place in the semi-finals.



Men’s doubles pair Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong soon followed suit, but they had to dig even deeper before sweeping past Danish duo Mathias Boe-Mads Conrad-Petersen 21-13, 22-24, 27-25 in a 71-minute see-saw contest.

Victory was even sweeter for Goh-Tan, who clinched the Chinese Taipei Open title at the expense of the same pair last week.

The duo, who rose three spots to 12th on the world rankings courtesy of the triumph, will now go on to face top seeds Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya in the last eight.

Armed with confidence, the Olympic silver medalists will look to turn the tables on the same pair who beat them at the semis of the Malaysia Masters.

There was further good news in the men’s doubles as Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi also went the distance before prevailing against another Danish pair in Kim Astrup-Andres Rasmussen 21-18, 14-21, 25-23 in 74 minutes.

They will now face China’s Li Jun Hui-Liu Yu Chen in the last eight.

It was not all good news for Malaysia, as Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying fell to Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad-Winny Oktavina 21-17, 21-23, 18-21 in the mixed doubles.

Chan-Goh had endured nightmares when Tontowi partnered the now retired Liliyana Natsir, winning only once in 12 meetings.

But after the indomitable Liliyana retired in January, Tontowi found success with Winny and beaten the Malaysians twice in three outings.

It was also the end of the road for Liew Daren in the men’s singles, as he bowed out with a 12-21, 19-21 loss to Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama.