KUALA LUMPUR – Heartache for national badminton singles player Lee Zii Jia as he crashes out of the World Championships in the third round after losing to Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in Copenhagen this morning.
The former All-England champion was beaten 21-18, 21-17 at the Royal Arena. Last year, he lost at the same stage to Zhao Junpeng of China.
This will be the second consecutive time Zii Jia gets knocked out in the third round of the tournament.
“Well, we have played with each other a few times, and we know each other very well. He controlled the game today and was the better player.
“Anders played really well today, and he had the home advantage. Every day, the conditions are different, and you have to adapt to what you have today. He played fantastically.
“I just need some time to come back, and I need to have patience.”
Last night, defending champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik stepped into the quarterfinals in style after brushing aside Chinese Taipei’s Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin in their third-round match.
The pair won 21-16, 21-18 in straight sets. Aaron-Wooi Yik now take on Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi of China in the quarterfinal.
At the same time, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah became the first Malaysian women’s doubles team to qualify for the quarterfinals in the World Championships yesterday since Amelia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho, who had a similar feat in 2015.
The pair defeated the world number four pair Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara of Japan 21-14, 22-20.
Today, Pearly-Thinaah will play against China’s Zhang Shu Xian-Zheng Yu for a place in the semifinal.
In the earlier match, the national men’s doubles pair, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, were knocked out from the tournament as they were defeated by China’s world number three pair, Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang, in their round of 16 match.The Malaysian pair lost 16-21, 21-14, 17-21.
Meanwhile, national men’s pair of Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi lost 21-15, 21-10 in straight sets to Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, who are ranked 11th in the world. – August 25, 2023