PETALING JAYA: It came as a shock to some of his fans but Lee Zii Jia may have taken the most appropriate action – taking a break from the game temporarily, to rediscover his form.
It was painful to see a shuttler with much quality, who won the All-England title in 2021, suffer defeats in the preliminary rounds on a regular basis and Zii Jia finally decided that enough is enough at the Indonesian Open yesterday.
With just two semi-final appearances – at the All-England and the Swiss Open in March this year – and seven other campaigns ending in the preliminary rounds, Zii Jia made the right call to quit competition for awhile.
He decided that he needed a pit stop to recharge himself after his latest defeat to Indian rival Lakshya Sen, who beat him 21-17, 21-13 in 33 minutes in Jakarta yesterday.
“It’s quite tough today and Lakshya played a good game. I will take a break from the game temporarily, “ Zii Jia told the Badminton World Federation yesterday.
“I don’t know how long I will take but I will quit the game for a while until I get motivated again. I will take a break and get a rest for a while.”
Zii Jia also indicated that he will stop playing in tournaments for some time without clearly disclosing a specific period.
“Maybe I will stop playing tournaments – I don’t know for how long. I have been considering this for quite some time. I can’t concentrate 100%,” added Zii Jia.
“I did well at the Sudirman Cup but I haven’t done much different after that.
“The priority for me is to find my passion on court and I will come back stronger.”
Zii Jia’s decision comes just weeks after announcing Wong Tat Meng as his new coach who is expected to start his duties in July.
Tat Meng’s arrival could possibly re-ignite the passion in Zii Jia and the Kedahan's absence on the international scene is not expected to be a lengthy one.
Zii Jia was not the only one struggling as Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) shuttler Ng Tze Yong has also been finding it hard to impress since he started playing regularly against the big boys in the super 750 and super 1000 tournaments.
Much was expected after Tze Yong’s breakthrough victory over world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark at the All-England but the Malaysian needs to be more consistent in an extremely competitive Olympic race in the men’s singles.
Tze Yong admitted he was nervous in the third game against world No. 10 Shi Yuqi of China where the Malaysian had trailed 18-6 and never made much impact after that. Tze Yong lost 7-21, 21-17, 13-21 in the first round.
“I was trailing far behind in the third game and also started getting nervous as I was unable to gain points,” was all Tze Yong had to say.
