KUALA LUMPUR — Professional men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia made it to the last eight of the Arctic Open 2026 in Vantaa, Finland today.

The world No. 56 and 2023 champion needed 46-minutes to dispatch Su Li Yang of Taiwan 21-17, 21-12 during the second round of the Super 500 tournament held in Energia Arena.

However, a tricky task lies ahead for the unseeded Zii Jia tomorrow as he will take on second seed from France, Christo Popov.

Popov had earlier brushed aside the challenge from Tharun Mannepalli of India 21-14, 21-19.

In the meantime, it was the end of the road for national mixed doubles pair Jimmy Wong-Cheng Su Yin who let slip the first set win 21-19 before falling to Akira Koga-Natsu Saito of Japan 7-21, 11-21.

Another national mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Chan Wen Tse endured similar fate as they were sent packing by top seed from China Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping 15-21, 14-21 in 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, national men’s doubles pair Aaron Tai-Yap Roy King stormed to the next round as they stunned seventh seed from Taiwan Lee Fang-Chih-Lee Fang-Jen 21-19, 21-11 in 39-minutes.

Aaron-Roy King will next face either Thailand’s Peeratchai Sukphun-Pakkapon Teeraratsakul or Scottish duo Christopher Grimley-Matthew Grimley in the quarter-finals.

The Arctic Open 2026, which offers total prize money of US$500,000 (RM2.04 million), runs until October 11.