Lee Zii Jia To Play Kodai Naraoka In Australian Open Final

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Lee Zii Jia faces Kodai Naraoka in the 2024 Australian Open final. (Photo: PA)
Lee Zii Jia faces Kodai Naraoka in the 2024 Australian Open final. (Photo: PA)

Jakarta: Lee Zii Jia came back from a first-set loss to defeat Taiwan’s World No. 37 Lee Chia Hao 10-21, 21-15, 21-10 in the semifinals of the 2024 Australian Open at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday.

Highlights of Lee Zii Jia vs. Lee Chia Hao in the 2024 Australian Open semifinals:

This is World No. 8 Lee Zii Jia’s third final of the season, having won the Thailand Open and finished as runner-up at the Malaysia Masters last month.

Sunday’s final will see Lee Zii Jia face Japan’s World No. 6 Kodai Naraoka.

Naraoka currently hold a 3-2 career head-to-head record against Lee.

If Lee wins the Australian Open, he will be the fourth Malaysian men’s singles player to win the tournament, following in the footsteps of Sairul Amar Ayub (2002), Ismail Saman (2006), and Lee Tsuen Seng (2008).

As for Lee himself, he considers reaching the Australia Open final as a positive sign with just six weeks remaining before the Paris 2024 Olympics begin.

“This is my fourth consecutive tournament and my third final. It’s a positive sign heading into the Olympics,” said Lee.

“The first set was challenging; I couldn’t keep up with his pace. In the second set, I stayed patient and tried to calm myself to avoid making easy mistakes, and the strategy worked.”

“In the third set, I noticed he made a lot of easy mistakes, which boosted my confidence to win the game,” explained Lee.

Despite expecting a tough challenge from Kodai Naraoka, Lee is determined not to waste the opportunity to claim his first Australian Open title and his second title of the season.

“This is my first final in Australia, and many Malaysian supporters are here to cheer me on. I hope to bring home the championship trophy tomorrow,” continued Lee.

Meanwhile, Lai Pei Jing and Lim Chiew Sin, making their debut as a duo, have the chance to make history by becoming Malaysia’s first women’s doubles pair to win the Australian Open after a surprise run to the final.

The pair excelled by upsetting the third seeds from Hong Kong, Yeung Nga Ting/Yeung Pui Lam, 21-13, 18-21, 21-14.

They will face the Indonesian pair Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma/Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi in the final.

In men’s doubles, Muhammad Haikal/Choong Hon Jian had to settle for a semifinal exit after losing to the top seeds from China, He Ji Ting/Ren Xiang Yu, 18-21, 9-21.

“We started quite well in the first set,” said Haikal.

“However, in the second set, we played under pressure. Our opponents put a lot of pressure on us, and we were playing against the wind. That caused us to lose many points,” explained Haikal.

Despite not reaching the final, the semifinal achievement is the biggest in their career since pairing up in August last year, considering the Australian Open is a BWF Super 500 World Tour event.

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