Saarbrucken: Malaysia’s World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia became the favorite to win his second title of the year when he competes at the HYLO Open in Saarbrucken, Germany which started its first day on Nov 2.
Lee seemed to be struggling after going through four consecutive tournaments in Europe recently, including the Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup, Denmark Open, and French Open. However, the door is now wide open for Lee to achieve better results in Germany after only 3 out of the World’s top 10 players (World No. 4 Chou Tien Chen, World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia, World No. 9 Angus Ng Ka Long) participated in the BWF Super 500 tournament.
The 23 -year -old, who was seeded second will open against Pablo Abian from Spain in the first round action on Wednesday.
Coaching Director of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), Wong Choong Hann, told Malaysian media that Lee is currently going through an important phase of his career when he has to play in big tournaments continuously.
He said Lee needed to learn immediately to ensure that his fitness level is always at the highest level so that he could show his best performance in every tournament.
“I think his physical level is still okay but the challenge is more to his mental strength. This is the challenge he has to overcome, he needs to know what it takes to play at the optimum level in a situation like this,” said Wong.
“This is an important experience for him so that he is more aware and can exceed expectations for himself as well as be prepared for more intense challenges in the future,” added Wong.
“They (Lee Zii Jia and coach Hendrawan) will continue to carry out recovery and physical rehabilitation training. We will look into his situation to decide his participation in future tournaments,” explained Wong.
After playing in four consecutive tournaments, Lee was clearly exhausted and was upset by World No. 40 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the first round of the French Open last week.
Earlier, he advanced to the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open before losing to Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medalist Viktor Axelsen 19-21, 19-21.
