KULAU LULU: At the Super 1000 Malaysia Open next month, World No. 2 Lee Zii Jia faces Japan’s in-form Kodai Naraoka in a difficult opening match.
This season, Naraoka, 21, has been dominant, recently reaching a career high of world No. 10 on the BWF rankings
Both Zii Jia and Naraoka still can’t seem to confront one another, however the Japanese remarkable new star has performed better compared to the Malaysian this season, arriving at four finals and five semi-finals.
Zii Jia, who became a professional wrestler this year, recently parted ways with Indra Wijaya, his coach, and is moving alone with his team right now.
Zii Jia has struggled with consistency despite winning the Super 500 Thailand Open and the Asian Championships in May.
The 24-year-old has only advanced past the second round in four of his last five tournaments, the only one of which was the Denmark Open final.
Kedah-born Naraoka was also eliminated from the season-ending World Tour Finals, where he reached the semifinals but narrowly lost to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, who would go on to win the championship.
Second-seeded Zii Jia will most likely face world No. 29 Ng Tze Yong, who will play Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in the first round unless anything unexpected happens.
World No. 3 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen of India, and three shuttlers from China—Lu Guang Zu, Zhao Jun Peng, and Li Shi Feng—are
The top half of the draw includes Axelsen, Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Jonatan Christie, Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen, China’s Shi Yuqi, and Japan’s Kento Momota, a two-time world champion.
The prize money for the Malaysia Open, which takes place from January 10 to 15 at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, totals US$1.25 million (RM5.6 million).
India’s Thomas Cup legends Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and HS Prannoy took huge actions in the BWF World Rankings
In the most recent update to the rankings, which saw more tournaments being unfrozen, the doubles team of Satwik and Chirag, who began the year with the goal of reaching the top five in the world, achieved a career-best ranking of No. 5. In addition to their significant role in the Thomas Cup campaign, the men’s doubles team won gold at the Birmingham CWG 2022 and a historic bronze medal at the World Championships.
HS Prannoy, India’s just member at the season-finishing BWF World Visit Finals, got back to the main 10. A previous world No 8, a positioning he accomplished quite a while back, Prannoy is presently No 9 on the planet, climbing two spots.
Lakshya Sen holds the No. 7 spot in the men’s singles rankings, with Prannoy just ahead of Srikanth Kidambi, who is ranked No 11. When Olympic qualification begins in 2023, it will be fascinating to see how the rankings battle plays out.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand rose to No. 18 in the world in women’s doubles.
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