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PETALING JAYA: Don’t expect miracles from Lee Zii Jia in the Korean Open.
The independent men’s singles shuttler started training under his new coach Wong Tat Meng only yesterday at the Sports Arena Sentosa in Kuala Lumpur and he will only have around two weeks to adapt to Tat Meng’s coaching methods before competing in the Korean tourney from July 18-23 in Yeosu.
The 25-year-old will be back in action after taking a short break from tournaments since the Indonesian Open two weeks ago.
Zii Jia, who had been without a coach since parting ways with Indonesian Indra Wijaya last November, had suffered a fourth consecutive early-round exit in individual tournaments in Jakarta and will need time to regain his best form under Tat Meng’s guidance.
His slump in form had seen him drop to No. 14 in the latest world rankings.
Zii Jia will also not have it easy in Yeosu as he opens his campaign against none other than Tat Meng’s former charge Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong.
In a surprising twist, Angus will be coached by Wong Choong Hann, who trained Zii Jia when both were in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
Choong Hann had resigned from his post as BAM’s singles coaching director two weeks ago and has taken up the men’s singles coaching position in the Hong Kong national team yesterday.
On top of that, Zii Jia does not have a good record against Angus as he has lost to the latter three times in their four meetings in international competitions.
Zii Jia’s sole victory over Angus came in the 2019 German Open.
Zii Jia’s sister and manager Lee Zii Yii said: “There’s just less than two weeks to prepare for upcoming tournament series.
“It’s important for Zii Jia’s team to focus on the training.”
After the Korean Open, Zii Jia will compete in the Japan Open (July 25-30) in Tokyo and Australian Open (Aug 1-6) in Sydney.