KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian men's and women's squash teams advanced to the Asian Games semi-finals today in Hangzhou with a match in hand.
The Malaysian men's team, who are the defending champions, routed Japan and Thailand with identical scores of 3-0 in Group B.
Second seeds Malaysia have posted four consecutive wins, and will face third seeds Hong Kong, who also have four wins, tomorrow in a top-of-the-group clash.
The Malaysian women's team registered their third straight win after crushing Macau 3-0 in Group B.
Second seeds Malaysia, who were the bronze medallists in the 2018 edition, will wrap up their group with a match against third seeds India.
Team manager Nafzahizam Adnan said both the men's and women's players performed well in the first two days.
"But tomorrow we will face a strong challenge. We are optimistic that both our men's and women's teams will rise to the occasion against Hong Kong and India respectively."
The oder of play was 2-1-3. Veteran Ivan Yuen beat Japan's Tomotaka Endo 6-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, Asian champion Ng Eain Yow beat Ryunosuke Tsukue 11-6, 6-11, 13-11, 11-6 and Addeen Idrakie downed Naoki Hayashi 11-5, 11-6, 11-4.
Later, Addeen outplayed Thailand's Ravipun Limphaiboon 11-4, 11-1, 11-1, Eain Yow defeated Arkaradet Arkarahirunya 11-4, 11-1, 11-4 and Syafiq Kamal beat Natthapat Theerasilp 11-1, 11-1, 11-2.
In the women's event, Aira Azman stopped Macau's Yeung Wai Leng
11-1, 11-2, 11-3, S. Sivasangari beat Liu Kwai Chi 11-6, 11-2, 11-2 and Aira Azman outplayed Leong Ieng Lam 11-7, 11-2, 11-2.
Results Men:
Group A: India 3 Kuwait 0, Pakistan 3 Singapore 0, Qatar 3 Nepal 0, Kuwait 3 Qatar 0, Singapore 3 Nepal 0.
Group B: Malaysia 3 Japan 0, Hong Kong 3 Philippines 0, S. Korea 3 Thailand 0, Malaysia 3 Thailand 0, Hong Kong 3 Japan 0.
Women:
Group A: Hong Kong 3 S. Korea 0, Japan 3 Mongolia 0, Hong Kong 2 Japan 1, S. Korea 3 Thailand 0
Group B: Malaysia 3 Macau 0, India 3 Nepal 0, India 3 Macau 0, Pakistan 3 Nepal 0