Alex Lanier: Quarter-Finals Win in Malaysia | [Year]

Alex Lanier is off to a good start in 2026. By qualifying this Thursday for the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open, a tournament ranked Super 1000 – the highest rank on the world circuit -, the Frenchman upheld his status as number 7 seed, while avoiding the trap that this round of 16 could have constituted against the Irishman Nhat Nguyen, whom he approached as the big favorite.

Facing the 31st player in the world, against whom he had three successes in their last confrontations, Alex Lanier was able to first make the task easier by taking the lead straight away (9-6), before carrying out a brutal acceleration which left his Irish opponent without reaction (twelve points won out of fourteen to conclude the first act 21-8). The second round was more closely contested, Nguyen even leading for a moment by three lengths (10-13) but the 20-year-old Frenchman reacted immediately by winning six points in a row (16-13) to avoid too much doubt.

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Alex Lanier, the only Frenchman still in the running

Ditto when the 31st in the world regained the advantage at 19-18 in his favor, the badista from Normandy did not procrastinate and gleaned the last three points of the match (21-19) to invite himself into the quarter-finals. Where now awaits him the world number 2, the Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn, whom he has already beaten twice in four confrontations. Note that Lanier is the last survivor of the French contingent since, a little earlier in the day, the mixed doubles composed of Julien Maio and Léa Palermo logically lost against the Danes Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund, not without good resistance against the 11th in the world (21-17, 14-21, 13-21).