Zii Jia now believes he is one of the world’s best

PETALING JAYA: National men’s singles ace Lee Zii Jia (pic) believes he has proven a point after giving a better account of himself at the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship in Vantaa, Finland.

The 23-year-old pulled off an epic 22-20, 21-19 victory against world No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan on Saturday to avenge his earlier defeat to the latter during the group stage.

It was the only point won by Malaysia as they went down 1-3 to Japan in the semi-finals.

Zii Jia has every reason to be upbeat after also claiming his maiden win over Indonesia’s world No. 5 Anthony Ginting in an emphatic straight games in the quarter-finals.

Zii Jia knew he had to bounce back after coming up short in his Olympics debut two months ago.

As the reigning All-England champion, the world No. 8 headed to Tokyo with plenty of promise and was even touted to be one of the medal contenders but lost to eventual silver medallist Chen Long of China in the last 16.

Zii Jia has put that disappointment behind him with the morale-boosting wins against two of his biggest rivals – Momota and Anthony.

“I have shown to the fans once again that I’m one of the best players and I can beat anyone,” Zii Jia told Badminton Europe.

Zii Jia was particularly pleased that he was able to break the defence of the back-to-his-best Momota.

“You need to put a lot of stamina into matches with him. I had no choice, I had to gamble (on a few shots),” he said.

“You have to work hard as he’s a strong defensive player.

“You have to play different kinds of shots and smashes, and combine them into one to break him.”

It won’t be too long before fans get to see Zii jia and Momota in action again as their next duel will be at the Thomas Cup Finals in Aarhus, Denmark from Oct 9-17.

Both countries are drawn in Group D with England and Canada.

But Momota, who went into the match against Zii Jia after a hard-fought 21-16, 19-21, 21-17 quarter-final win over Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen on Friday, said he will be ready.

“I could not built on the pace as a result of the long match the day before, that’s why I lost,” said Momota.

SEMI-FINAL RESULTS

Japan bt Malaysia 3-1 (Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi bt Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik 21-15, 21-14; Akane Yamaguchi bt S. Kisona 21-7, 21-5; Kento Momota lost to Lee Zii Jia 20-22, 19-21; Misaki MatsutomoMayu Matsumoto bt M. Thinaah-Pearly Tan 21-19, 21-17).