Malaysian Lee Tsuen Seng's bid for a third international badminton title for the year ended with a straight game defeat at the hands of Singaporean Kendrick Lee in the men’s singles semi-finals of the Dutch Open yesterday.

The second-seeded Tsuen Seng lost 16-21, 19-21 after fighting for 44 minutes against his younger rival, who is ranked 25th in the world.

Tsuen Seng had ended the run of his KLRC Bhd team-mate and defending champion Sairul Amar Ayob with a comfortable 21-9, 21-12 win in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Kendrick overcame local favourite Eric Pang 21-19, 21-19 to reach the semi-finals.

Top seed Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland will face China’s Wu Yunyong in the other semi-final.

Yunyong came from behind to beat Malaysian veteran Roslin Hashim 20-22, 23-21, 21-10 while Wacha won 21-10, 21-13 over German Marc Zwiebler in the quarter-finals.

Tsuen Seng had won the US and Canadian Opens last month and was a runner-up in the Bittburger Open in Germany early this month.

Tsuen Seng’s results from the smaller Open tournaments have seen him emerging as the third ranked Malaysian singles player on the international stage.

Tsuen Seng, who quit the national team last year, is ranked 16th behind world number 13th Wong Choong Hann and number two Lee Chong Wei.

Tsuen Seng is the only remaining Malaysian challenger in the Dutch Open after KLRC women’s doubles pair of Lim Pek Siah-Haw Chiou Hwee failed in their bid to topple Russian second seeds Anastasia Russkikh-Ekaterina Ananina in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Malaysian pair lost 12-21, 10-2.

Pek Siah-Chiou Hwee advanced to the last eight after beating Eva Lee-Mesinee Mangkalakiri of the United States 21-10, 21-18 in the second round on Thursday.

Copyright © 2007 TheStar Online.