TOP seed Lee Zii Jia crashed out of the Orléans Masters quarter-finals when he was beaten by unseeded Irish player Nhat Nguyen early this morning Malaysian time.
Nguyen needed only 39 minutes to beat the Malaysian professional 23-21, 21-7 in the match at the Palais des Sports.
Nguyen, who lost all three of his previous matches against Zii Jia, will meet home player Alex Lanier in the semi-finals.
This was Zii Jia’s first tournament of the season after recovering from an ankle injury sustained during the BWF World Tour finals last December.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s men’s doubles pair Arif Junaidi-Yap Roy King continued their fine run with a 21-19, 21-18 victory over Taiwan’s Lee Jhe Huei-Yang Poh Hsuan.
They will play top seeds Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China in the semi-finals.