Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s men’s singles World No. 4 Lee Zii Jia said that he is currently preparing for the 2022 Denmark Open which will be held from October 18 to October 23 in Odense, Denmark.
Lee who won the 2022 Asian Championships also revealed that he would leave for Denmark a week earlier. He has contacted World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen and World No. 3 Anders Antonsen so that they could train together when he arrives in Denmark.
– Proses dan progress kejayaan Axelsen menjadi inspirasi LZJ.
– “Saya pun putting quite high expectation for my performance in BWC, plus minus memang ada kecewa, tapi saya terima”.
– LZJ berangkat seminggu awal ke Denmark, 9 Oktober untuk berlatih dengan Axelsen & Antonsen pic.twitter.com/qlwsGKCS13
— Syakirah Zulkifly (@SykrhZlkfly) September 25, 2022
“I’ll be leaving for Denmark on October 9 to train there. I’ve already contacted Axelsen and Antonsen to train with them,” said Lee.
“Axelsen is the best player at the moment and his performance is very consistent. He is indeed a player I have admired for a long time,” added Lee.
Lee who is expected to go up one spot to World No. 3 in this week’s BWF rankings set to be released on Tuesday, told Malaysian media that he did not set any specific targets at the Denmark Open this time because for him the most important thing is to play his best.
“It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, the most important thing is to show your best performance,” added Lee, who was eliminated in the third round of the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, last month, and then was knocked out of the first round of Japan Open one week after the World Championships.
“If you looked at Axelsen, he also struggled in his career as well. He had a 0-11 career head-to-head meeting against Momota, but he came back and maintained his performance very well,” continued Lee.
“This is just part of the progress of an athlete, as long as we believe and are confident in ourselves,” explained Lee.
After the Denmark Open, Lee will play in the French Open from October 25 to October 30 and most likely participate in the Hylo Open in Germany (November 1 to November 6) and the Australia Open (November 15 to November 20).
“I might go to the Hylo Open and Australia because I want to collect as many points as possible for the BWF World Tour Finals,” said Lee.
Lee is currently ranked No. 7 on the BWF World Tour Finals rankings with only the top eight players on that list could qualify for the Finals.
