KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 — National men’s singles professional shuttler Lee Zii Jia huffed and puffed his way past two Japanese opponents in qualifying round matches to make the main draw of the Australia Open Badminton Championships at the Quaycentre Arena in Sydney today.
The world No 64 struggled for 52 minutes to overcome Shogo Ogawa 24-22, 22-20 in the first qualifying match.
The former All England champion then had to slog even longer — 61 minutes — before subduing Riki Takei 15-21, 21-17, 27-16 to qualify for the main draw.
This is Zii Jia’s second appearance in the main draw on the World Tour this season after the Thailand Open last month, where he was eliminated in the opening round.
The 28-year-old had previously skipped the Malaysia Masters (May 19-24), despite automatically qualifying for the main draw, to focus on the ongoing Australia Open (June 8-14), Macau Open (June 16-21), the US Open (June 23-28) and Canada Open (June 30-Aug 5)
In the opening round of tomorrow’s main draw, Zii Jia is slated to face Taiwan’s world No 29 Lee Chia Hao.
Meanwhile, another Malaysia shuttler, Eogene Ewe, also confirmed his spot in the men’s singles main draw after two contrasting wins in the qualifying rounds.
He first had to fight back from a first-game defeat to overcome American Mark Shelley Alcala 18-21, 21-13, 21-11 before notching a straightforward 21-11, 21-18 victory over India’s Manraj Singh.
The 21-year-old Eogene’s reward for making the main draw is a first-round clash aganst Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu.
There was, however, no such luck for Malaysia’s Lim Ming Hong when he fell 9-21, 16-21 to India’s Saneeth Dayanand in their men’s singles qualifying round match. — Bernama
