MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb 22: Favourites Malaysia smashed Australia and Hong Kong on the way to clinching a semifinal place at the Thomas Cup Asia/Oceania zone badminton preliminaries here Friday.

World number three Wong Choong Hann cruised to straight games victories over his two opponents, Australian No.1 Stuart Brehaut and Hong Kong’s Agus Hariyanto.

Wong was only on court for a total of 45 minutes in his two rapid-fire victories.

The tournament top seeds only dropped one game in 30 Friday, when Hong Kong’s Wei Ng captured the opening game of his match with Malaysian Open champion Ong Ewe Hock. The Malaysians are 4-0 heading into the semis.

Joint 3/4th seeds Thailand were thrown into a testing match-up against Malaysia in Saturday’s semi-finals after losing 5-0 to second seeds Korea and finishing second in Group B.

Korea will play Japan in Saturday’s other semifinal in the Thomas Cup.

Japan won through after winning a fifth rubber against Singapore.

Singapore levelled the match at 2-2 after Wandri Saputra and Kim Pong Lau beat Yuzo Kubota and Takuya Katayama in five games over 55 minutes, but Japan won the deciding doubles with Tadashi Ohtsuka and Keita Masuda winning in straight games.

In the women’s Uber Cup, South Korea upset top seeds Indonesia 5-0 to win Group A and they will take on Japan in Saturday’s semifinals.

Thomas and Uber Cup results

GROUP A

Japan 3 Hong Kong 2

Malaysia 5 Australia 0

Malaysia 5 Hong Kong 0

Japan 3 Singapore 2

Group B

South Korea 5 Thailand 0

Taiwan 5 Macau 0

Saturday’s semi-finals: Malaysia v Thailand, Korea v Japan

GROUP A

Thailand 3 Australia 2

South Korea 5 Indonesia 0

GROUP B

Singapore 4 Malaysia 1

Hong Kong 3 Japan 2

Saturday’s semifinals: Korea v Japan, Hong Kong v Indonesia.—AFP