Tough opener: Coach Wong Tat Meng (inset) hopes Lee Zii Jia will clear his first round against China’s Lu Guangzu.
PETALING JAYA: Could Lee Zii Jia be the third singles player under the charge of coach Wong Tat Meng to enter the final at home?
It is possible if a better prepared and injury-free Zii Jia can overcome his tough opponents from the start in the Malaysian Open starting on Tuesday at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Tat Meng was the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coach in 2007 when his player and top woman singles shuttler Wong Mew Choo pulled off the biggest surprise to reach the final at Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium (KLBA) before losing to China’s Zhu Lin.
In 2022, Tat Meng also guided Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong to shine in Malaysia when the latter reached the Malaysian Masters final (the second-ranked home tournament) before losing to Chico Aura of Indonesia in the title match.
It will be grand homecoming victory for Tat Meng if Zii Jia can go all the way to the final but the former prefers to be cautious.
“Zii Jia has a tough opener and that makes this home tournament tricky for him, but of course, I would like him to get off to a good start and move on from there,” said Tat Meng.
World No. 11 Zii Jia’s first hurdle is Lu Guangzu of China and on paper, Zii Jia is ranked higher but the world No. 19 Guangzu has the skills and determination to surprise anyone on his good day.
If Zii Jia snuffs him out, he is set to meet world No. 4 Anthony Ginting of Indonesia and the winner will meet either seventh seed Shi Yuqi of China or Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen.
The Malaysian is in the same half with top seed and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
In the bottom half of the draw are second seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan, third seed Li Shifeng of China, reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand and few other hopefuls Lakshya Sen of India, Anders Antonsen of Denmark, and Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia.
“It’s as tough as it gets,” said Tat Meng.
But Tat Meng, who had coached Indonesia, Scotland, South Korea and Hong Kong before returning home to guide Zii Jia last year, said their preparation had been a mix of ups and downs.
Zii Jia was supposed to have quality sparring with the Popov brothers Toma and Christo of France but the plan did not work out.
Instead, BAM’s loss was team Zii Jia’s gain when national discard Lee Shun Yang was hired to spar. Shun Yang, last year’s Cambodia SEA Games bronze medallist, was dropped from the national team in their recent review exercise.
“It was unfortunate that Zii Jia was unable to spar with the French boys but that’s how it is. We got Shun Yang to come in last week after getting the blessing from BAM,” he said.
“The good news is that Zii Jia is injury-free and it’s my wish that it will stay that way.”
Malaysia last won at the Malaysian Open through former men’s singles great Lee Chong Wei in 2018.
