
Kuala Lumpur: Playing in the recent two European leg tournaments has earned World No. 8 men’s singles player – Lee Zii Jia a lucrative return.
The 23-year-old Malaysian pocketed a total prize money of RM246,538 from the All England and also another RM8,407 as he advanced to the semi-finals of the Swiss Open.
Following his success in winning the 2021 All England where he ended Malaysia’s four-year drought to emerge as the men’s singles champion after Lee Chong Wei last won it in 2017, Lee received RM30,000 incentive from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) after returned home to Malaysia.
On Wednesday, the government of the state of Kedah where Lee was born, agreed to award Lee RM25,000 for his performance in All England.
The governor of the state of Kedah – Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said that Lee is currently busy with training and with his preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, the government will hand over the incentive as soon as he returns to Kedah.
“We do not want to disrupt his training schedule, we will prepare the RM25,000 and will hand it over when he returns,” said Md Nor.
Meanwhile, Md Nor also said that the state government had agreed to give an incentive of RM10,000 to Pearly Tan, who also from Kedah. Tan won the Swiss Open on March 7 partnering Thinaah Muralitharan by defeating World No. 14 pair, Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria 21-19, 21-12 in 43 minutes.