Kuala Lumpur: With his eight-month suspension officially ended on April 30, 2015, former world number one shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s has dropped to No. 45th place in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, behind Malaysian shuttlers Chong Wei Feng who was ranked 31st and Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the 41st place.
According to the rankings released on Thursday in BWF’s official website, Lee Chong Wei now has 27,631 points, all from tournaments before the two-time Olympic silver medalist was suspended by BWF backdating to Aug 30, 2014.
Lee’s ranking has put Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in a tricky situation in selecting players for the 2015 World Championship that will be held at Jakarta from August 10-16.
According to the BWF rules, a country can only a maximum of two players to participate in the world championships if both players are ranked within world 150. This means that BAM will have to sacrifice either Chong Wei Feng or Zulfadli Zulkiffli to free up a spot in order to let Lee Chong Wei play at the 2015 world championships.
“We can only pick two men’s singles players. I can’t tell you who will be selected now. If BAM choose Chong Wei, it will be the best choice,” said BAM technical director Morten Frost.
Watch “Lee Chong Wei is back!” video
Direct link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdm1SP3SMks
