The world No 12 pair defeated Muhammad Shohibul Fikri-Daniel Marthin 21-14, 24-22 two weeks after being defeated 16-21, 21-19, 21-13 by the Indonesian combination in the second round of the Hong Kong Open.

In the final tomorrow, Goh-Izzuddin will meet the winner of the other semifinal match between Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and China’s world No 7 He Ji Teng-Ren Xiang Yu.

The match comes a month after Goh-Izzuddin wrested the Japan Open title with a stunning 21-19, 21-15 victory over reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung-jae of South Korea.

Today’s semifinal match nearly went into a rubber game with the Malaysians giving their supporters some anxious moments when they lost three match points before winning the game.

The first game had got off to a nervous start with both pairs making unforced errors. Goh-Izzuddin were trailing 8-10 after six minutes but they unleashed some power play to take a 11-10 lead at the break.

They did not look back after that and raced ahead with some accurate low cross-court drives to win the game 21-14 in 15 minutes.

The second game saw Fikri-Marthin determined to force a rubber game as they took an early 9-7 lead. Again, the tenacious Malaysians fought back hard and took a 11-10 lead at the break.

It was a tense point-for-point battle towards the end of the game which again saw the Malaysians displaying great combination by setting each other for the killer smashes. They lost three match points before securing the game in 26 minutes.