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IT WAS a familiar situation Kendrick Lee found himself in on Sunday.
The Singaporean was up against a higher-ranked player.
But the world No 24 overcame the odds to beat Malaysian Yeoh Kay Bin in the opening match of the South-east Asia Games men's team semi-finals.
Yeoh, ranked three places higher, lost 10-21, 13-21.
That point set Singapore on the way to a 3-1 victory over Malaysia, who were missing top world No 2 Lee Chong Wei and All-England doubles champions Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong.
Singapore were without their No 1 Ronald Susilo, who was rested after straining an arm muscle in Saturday's quarter-final win over Vietnam.
Malaysia's solitary point came from Kuan Beng Hong, who beat Ashton Chen 21-10, 21-5.
The Republic's Derek Wong beat Chan Kwong Beng 22-20, 21-12, while Hendri Saputra and Hendra Wijaya teamed up to beat James Gan and Lin Woon Fui 21-14, 21-13.
Said Lee: 'It feels great, overcoming all these top players. But the spirit in this team is great, and we all wanted to do it for each other.'
The day was made even more sweeter when the women's team overcame Malaysia as 3-2 to move into today's final.
Both men and women are up against Indonesia.
Fu Mingtian, Gu Juan and the doubles pairing of Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia secured the win.
The shuttlers could now deliver two golds, after a long SEA Games drought.
A gold has eluded the men since Wong Shoon Keat's triumph in the men's singles in 1983.
In the last decade, the women have delivered only one gold - the team title in Vietnam 2003.
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