KUALA LUMPUR – The ranking of national men’s singles ace Lee Zii Jia continues to falter as his world ranking dropped one place in the latest update released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) today.
Zii Jia, who decided to take a short break following a disappointing run recently, slipped to 14th position with 54,476 points, far behind world champion Viktor Axelsen from Denmark with 103,005 points, the highest position in the BWF ranking.
Meanwhile, the success of winning the 2023 Taiwan Open title last Sunday, helped the national mixed doubles pair of Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei to jump four spots from 19th position to be ranked 15th after collecting 54,888 points.
The professional pair of Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie are the only representative of the country in the top 10 after retaining seventh place (62,984 points) in the ranking dominated by Chinese champions Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong (116,906 points).
A different fate was experienced by national men's doubles pair Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun when they did not move from 23rd position (43,160 points), despite defending the 2023 Taiwan Open title by defeating Taiwan’s Lu Ching Yao-Yang Po Han 20-22, 21-17, 21-14 in the final.
Two national men's doubles pairs, defending world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik remain in fourth position (81,794 points) while professional pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi are ranked sixth (71,250 points) while the Indonesian pair, Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto stayed unchallenged in top spot with (94,379 points).
The women’s doubles category saw the 2023 Malaysian Masters runners-up Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah remained in 12th position (65,821 points) with the Chinese pair Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan still superior, claiming top spot with (100,654 points).
Former two-time world junior champion Goh Jin Wei is out of the world’s top 30 women’s singles rankings after falling four places to 34th spot (34,683 points) and Japanese player Akane Yamaguchi remains at the top with 103,717 points. – Bernama, June 27, 2023
