PETALING JAYA: Professional singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia (pic) needs to quickly find a way to beat Lakshya Sen as he faces the prospect of meeting the Indian for the second time in two weeks in the Swiss Open starting today in Basel.
Top seed Zii Jia has been placed in the same half of the draw as Lakshya and could face him in the quarter-finals just a week after going down fighting 22-20, 16-21, 19-21 to the latter in the same stage in the All-England in Birmingham.
The world No. 10 has only beaten the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist once in five meetings in international competitions.
Zii Jia’s sole victory came in a last eight tie in the 2022 Thomas Cup Finals and has yet to overcome the 22-year-old in an individual tournament.
Before setting up a possible re-match against world No. 18 Lakshya though, Zii Jia, needs to beat Taiwan’s Su Li-yang in his opening match first.
If he clears it, he will meet either Indian K. Srikanth or Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei in the second round.
Lakshya will face Leong Jun Hao in the first round and if he progresses, he will take in the winner of the match between Frenchman Toma Popov and Taiwanese Lee Chia-hao.
Zii Jia enjoyed a good run in the tournament last year by reaching the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles, Malaysia will be represented by Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie, Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See, Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin and Yap Roy King-Valeree Siow.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei will take on Singapore’s husband and wife pairing, Terry Hee-Jessica Tan in the first round while Soon Huat-Shevon will play Australia’s Kenneth Choo-Gronya Somerville.
Peng Soon-Yee See and Pang Ron-Su Yin have been pitted against each other in their opener while Roy King-Valeree will start from the qualifying round against Germany’s Jan Voelker-Stine Kuespert.
