KUALA LUMPUR – Lee Zii Jia has paid a heavy price for his early exits from three recent major tournaments as he has dropped out of the top 10 in the world badminton rankings.
The national badminton ace slipped from 10th to 11th in the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) latest ranking of men’s singles players released today, while China’s Li Shifeng is 10th.
Denmark’s Viktor Exelsen maintained his position at the top of the list.
Zii Jia is among 15 athletes listed in the Road To Gold programme aimed at winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal at next year’s Paris Games but his recent form has been poor.
He was shown the exit in the second round of the Malaysia Masters in May by Taiwan’s Li Chun-yi and lost in the first round of last week’s Singapore Open to China’s Weng Hongyang.
His latest early exit came in the Indonesia Open today, where the Kedah-born shuttler lost his first-round match against India’s Lakshya Sen 17-21, 13-21.
The country’s other men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong remained in 21st spot.
Meanwhile, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik climbed one spot to third in the men’s doubles rankings.
The reigning world champions have been producing some outstanding performances lately. They had made the semi-finals of the Singapore Open but lost to China’s Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in three sets. – Bernama, June 14, 2023
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