The 33-year-old, who is playing in his home state at the SPICE Indoor Stadium, is the man to beat with the world number five and top seed looking in ominous form so far.

He was far too strong for Liang, winning the third round meeting in straights games 21-10, 21-10, to book a place in the last eight.

However, the home crowd were denied the prospect of an all Malaysian quarter-final as the double Olympic silver medallist's compatriot Zulfadli Zulkiffli was knocked out after an exciting contest with India's Ajay Jayaram.

Zulkiffl, who caused a shock when he knocked out Hong Kong's number five seed Hu Yun in round two, went out 11-21, 21-8, 22-20 to the Indian who will meet Lee instead.

Another Indian, the number two seed Srikanth Kidambi, also booked his passage through thanks to a 21-17, 21-10 win over Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana.

That set-up a quarter-final meeting with Huang Yuxiang of China, who knocked out number seven seed Wei Nan of Hong Kong, 21-18, 13-21, 21-16.

The women's competition reached the second round stage, with South Korea's top seed Sung Ji-hyun seeing off Hanna Ramadini of Indonesia 21-17, 21-7 to reach the quarter finals.

Indian third seed Pusarla Venkata Sindhu was among the other players to make it through, as she won a tight battle with Japan's Kaori Imabeppu, 21-13, 13-21, 21-14.

The tournament, the first Grand Prix Gold event of the season, is due to finish on Sunday (January 24).