HANGZHOU, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia rallied back to defeat newly-crowned world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand on Wednesday to reach the men's singles quarterfinals at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In the women's category, Japan's Aya Ohori stunned defending champion Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in straight games.

Lee dropped the first game 10-21 and was down 11-16 in the second, but he bounced back to restore parity at 21-19 and hit a stunning 21-6 in the decider.

Lee, who has more than 160,000 followers on China's social media platform Weibo, was cheered by the audience as he stepped on the court, feeling the same atmosphere as a home player.

Third seed Kunlavut was not in good form in Hangzhou as he escaped from a full-game match to dispatch Vietnam's Nguyen Hai Dang on Tuesday, when defending champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia was also ousted by Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei.

"I just don't want to give up every shot, every point but I don't think too much. I just play the way I know and play with my confidence," Lee said.

"Kunlavut won the world championship and of course, he has much more confidence, so I just played my best," the 2022 Asian champion stated. "No athlete wants to lose."

Lee will next meet fifth seed Prannoy Haseena Sunil Kumar of India.

Tai, who announced she would retire in 2024, was knocked out by Ohori 21-16, 21-14 in the round of 16.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't win a medal in my last Asian Games," Tai said on her social media account.

"I feel very disappointed with my performance today. I believe the challenges I need to overcome are within myself," commented Tai, who had never lost to Ohori in their past encounters.

China's rising star Li Shifeng beat Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-14, 21-16, while second seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan crushed Srikanth Nammalwar Kidambi 21-16, 21-17 to reach the men's singles last eight.

In the women's draw, home favorite Chen Yufei recovered from one game down to eliminate Singapore's Yeo Jia Min 19-21, 21-7, 21-9. Indonesian contender Gregoria Mariska Tunjung hammered Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia 21-6, 21-12.

The men's doubles event saw South Korean duo Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho upset Chinese young pair Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang 21-10, 18-21, 23-21, while world No. 1 women's pair Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan and top-ranked mixed pair Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong of China both progressed with straight-game victories.

The quarterfinals will take place on Thursday and gold medals in five categories will be awarded on Saturday. Enditem

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