Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong lost 21-16,21-11 in a lacklusture display to Korea's Chung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae in their final Group D match at the Wembley Arena. But they still make the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday where they take on Thailand's Isara Bodin/Jongjit Maneepong.
Contrary to stats provided, the two pairs have played each other in the SEA Games in 2009 when the Malaysians edging the Thai's who were three years younger and inexperienced.
"We played them at the SEA Games and they showed promise then. And they have also being playing well here," said Boon Heong.
"It will not be easyplaying them as they defeated fancied pairs enroute to topping the table so we will give them the due respect."
It was a poor performance and one could be forgiven for thinking that the Malaysians threw the match for a match up against the Thai's rather then the Indonesian pairing of Mohammad ahsan/Bona Septano.
"We did not play to lose but lost to a more technically superior opponent. Of course if we meet them again, it will be a totally different story," said Koo.
However the defeat means that they will play China's Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng in the semis, should they get past the quarterfinal challenge.
The Malaysians led 7-4 in the first but once the Koreans took the lead there was no looking back as they edged ahead 11-10 at the break.
Koo/Tan sent shots wide of the sidelines and did not look to worried losing the points as they lost 21-16 in the first set.
It was the same story as the Malaysians folded easily 21-11.
"We tried a couple of things and it worked at the initial stages but once the Koreans read it we were put on the back foot," said coach Tan Kim Her.
"We have been monitoring the Thai pair and will analyse the videos for a game plan against them."
