malaysia Lee Zi Jia saw another BWF World Tour tournament end early after being knocked out in a three-game second-round brawl at the Open d’Inde Thursday (January 19).
Lee, who has struggled with inconsistent form for the past year or so, had already survived a tight three-game opening round match against Shesar Hiren Rhustavito.
His opponent, Li Shifeng of the People’s Republic of China, looked to capitalize on that by dominating the opener, getting nine points in a row at one point and opening an 11-1 lead.
While Lee fought hard and found himself in the encounter winning the second game 21-14, it looked like things weren’t going his way in the decider as Li once again slipped to an early advantage.
The Malaysian dug deep to regain the upper hand as the pair of commuters exchanged heads. But once Li hit the front 15-15, the Chinese player didn’t look back dispatching the second seed 21-11, 14-21, 21-18 in an hour and four minutes.
Earlier, third seed If de Loh Kean defeated Denmark Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in consecutive matches 21-18-21-17 to set up a tantalizing quarter-final against the Thais Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who beat the Singaporean in the SEA Games final last year. Viktor Axelsen has also progressed.
The winner of this quarter-final could face Li in the last four, as long as the latter goes through what will be a tough clash against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
On the ladies’ singles table, the Rio 2016 Olympic champion Caroline Marin will face the world number one and world champion Akane Yamaguchi in the quarters after beating sixth seed Thailand Ratchanok Intanon 21-16, 21-16.
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