PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia (pic) is set to make his competitive return after nearly a month in the China Open starting on Tuesday in Changzhou.
And that should be good news for his legion of supporters in China.
Zii Jia, who captured bronze in the Paris Olympics last month, last competed in the Japan Open where he suffered a first-round defeat to eventual champion Alex Lanier of France.
The 26-year-old did not register for the Korean Open and then skipped the Hong Kong leg to recover fully from the mental and physical exhaustion from the Olympics.
World No. 3 Zii Jia has been placed in the top half of the draw in China along with the likes of world No. 1 and home favourite Shi Yuqi, Thailand’s Paris Games silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Japan’s world No. 6 Kodai Naraoka and Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting (No. 10).
Zii Jia could face Naraoka if both justify their respective seedings and reach the quarter-finals.
Before that, the independent player has a tricky opening match against another Japanese player Koki Watanabe.
A win will see Zii Jia play either Taiwan’s world No. 23 Wang Tzu-wei or world No. 28 Frenchman Christo Popov.
If Zii Jia progresses to the last four, he could take on Yuqi or Kunlavut.
The only other Malaysian in the fray in the men’s singles will be world No. 29 Leong Jun Hao, who has been placed in the lower half of the draw.
Jun Hao, who will be competing in only his second Super 1000 event after making his debut in the Indonesian Open in June, has a tough first round match against Christo’s brother and world No. 19 Toma Popov.
If the 25-year-old manages to beat Toma, he will likely take on Indonesia’s world No. 7 Jonatan Christie in the second round.
Besides Jonatan, the other big names in the lower half of the draw are Denmark’s two-time Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen, his world No. 5 teammate Anders Antonsen and China’s world No. 4 Li Shifeng.
