PETALING JAYA: Men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia broke into the world's top five again after a year.
The independent player moved two rungs up from No. 6 to No. 4 in the latest rankings despite losing in the first round of the Japan Open to eventual champion Alex Lanier of France.
Zii Jia's rise in rankings was aided by his form earlier in the year which saw him capture the Thailand and Australian Opens and win bronze in the Paris Olympics coupled with Denmark's Anders Antonsen and Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn losing ranking points.
The 26-year-old is now just two rungs away from his career-best ranking of No. 2 which he reached in 2022.
Zii Jia will skip the Korean Open which gets underway in Seoul on Tuesday (Aug 27) and will likely compete next in the back-to-back Hong Kong Open (Sept 10-15) and China Open (Sept 17-22).
