Badminton World Juniors: Malaysian top seed Jin Wei crashes out, Singapore's Jia Min in quarter-final

Malaysian shuttler's title defense came to a shocking end in the fourth round of the tournament.

Malaysia badminton
Malaysia's Goh Jin Wei's title defense came to a shocking end. (Representatioal image) Reuters

Malaysian shuttler Goh Jin Wei suffered a shocking exit from BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Bilbao on Thursday.

The top-seeded Girls' singles player lost her fourth round match, 10-21, 21-16, 21-16 to unseeded Japanese shuttler Natsuki Oie, who booked her slot in the quarter-final of the tournament.

While Jin Wei's Malaysian team lost the Team World Junior Championships to China 3-0, a lot was expected from the shuttler in the singles event from the defending champion.

A lot was said about the 16-year-old shuttler having an opportunity to extract revenge from China's top seed Chen Yufei, who defeated her in the final of the Team event. Notably, the Chinese shuttler has reached the quarter-final of the singles event and is looking primed to clinch glory in Bilbao.

Jin Wei started the match well taking the first game by a big margin and was leading the second 12-7 before an hamstring injury, according to the shuttler, made it difficult for her.

"At 12-7 in the second game we were rallying and I went up for a shuttle and twisted my ankle and pulled my hamstring. I thought I could do it. I tried to bear the pain because I didn't want to retire. I tried but it didn't go well," Jin Wei said, as quoted by the tournament's official website.

On the other hand, sixth seed Singapore shuttler Yeo Jia Min romped to the quarter-final by decimating unseeded United States player Jamie Hsu in just 26 minutes.

Hsu had no answers to an aggressive display from Jia Min, who took the match 21-13, 21-9. The Singapore shuttler will now face third seed, tournament favourite Pornpawee Chochuwong, who brushed aside a challenge from France's Leonice Huet 21-10, 21-11.

Notably, Jia Min had defeated top-seeded Pornpawee in the semi-finals of Jaya Raya Yonex Sunrise Junior Grand Prix en-route to clinch the title in September.

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