PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia is not making a mountain out of a molehill after taking a hard fall in his first international tournament this year at the Orleans Masters on Friday.
Instead, the 26-year-old Zii Jia says he is more focused on the All-England campaign starting on Tuesday in Birmingham.
Zii Jia, who made his first competitive appearance this year since suffering an ankle injury in the World Tour Finals last December, surprisingly went down 21-23, 7-21 to Ireland’s world No. 42 Nhat Nguyen at the Palais des Sports in France on Friday.
The pain of losing narrowly in the opening game could have rattled his emotion as he gave away easy points in the second against Nguyen.
Although the world No. 7 Zii Jia could not go further, it was still encouraging to see him return to court before the All-England.
Zii Jia said that he was trying to get back his rhythm before the prestigious tourney.
“Coming back from injury, I need a warm up before going to the All-England,” said Zii Jia.
“I’m happy that I can come and compete here. I want to find my momentum back on court.”
Zii Jia though knows that he will need to raise his levels in Birmingham after going down to Nguyen for the first time in four meetings.
The latter, who is coached by Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, said that Zii Jia was possibly not back to his peak condition yet and he took full advantage to come away with the big win.
“Of course I was the underdog. I knew he (Zii Jia) was coming back from injury, so maybe he’s not feeling the best on court,” said Nguyen.
“I just wanted to make every rally as hard as possible for him. I managed to do that in the first game which was very close.
“I think I played quite solid in the second game. I’m super happy with the performance.”
Nguyen will next take on home favourite and world No. 16 Alex Lanier for a place in the final.
Meanwhile, in the All-England, Zii Jia has a tricky opening match against Hong Kong’s world No. 20 Angus Ng Ka Long before a possible meeting with Singapore’s 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Ka Long is trained by former Malaysian Wong Choong Hann.
If Zii Jia makes it into the last eight, he will likely face a significant hurdle in the form of China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi.
Zii Jia has an impressive record in the competition as he has reached at least the quarter-finals in all his outings so far.
The Kedahan, who captured the title in 2021, went as far as the semi-finals in 2020, 2022 and 2023 and progressed to the last eight last year.
