PETALING JAYA: In-form duo Anders Antonsen and Li Shifeng could spoil Lee Zii Jia’s bid to go far in the World Tour Finals which gets underway on Wednesday in Hangzhou.
World No. 8 Zii Jia is hoping to do well in what will be his last tournament with coach Wong Tat Meng but faces a challenging task against Denmark’s world No. 2 Antonsen and China’s world No. 6 Shifeng in Group A.
The other player in the group is Taiwan’s world No. 9 Chou Tien-chen.
Only the top two in the group will make it into the last four.
Antonsen, who is also Zii Jia’s good friend, has been enjoying a rich vein of form this year and captured back-to-back titles in the Denmark Open in October and China Masters last month.
The 27-year-old also won the Malaysian Open and Indonesian Masters in January and finished runners-up in the Indonesian Open in June.
Overall, Antonsen narrowly leads 5-4 in the head-to-head records with Zii Jia but the latter did beat the Dane in their last two meetings in the quarter-finals of both the Malaysian Masters and Paris Olympics.
Zii Jia will also not have it easy against 2023 All-England champion Shifeng, who ended his title drought this year when he claimed the Japan Masters crown last month.
The Chinese ace has also enjoyed success in Hangzhou when he won gold in the Asian Games last year. Based on the head-to-head records, Shifeng has a slight advantage as he has beaten Zii Jia in three of their past five encounters.
It could also be a close match between Zii Jia and Tien-chen as their win-loss record is locked at 5-5.
While Antonsen is the hot favourite to finish in the top two in the group, it could be an open affair between Zii Jia, Shifeng and Tien-chen in the battle for the second slot.
Meanwhile, Group B contains China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi, Indonesia’s world No. 4 Jonatan Christie, Thailand’s reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Japan’s Kodai Naraoka (No. 7).
In the men’s doubles, national No. 1 and world No. 5 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (pic) were handed a tough draw in Group B which also features China’s world No. 6 He Jiting-Ren Xiangyu and Indonesians Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto (No. 4) and Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza (No. 11).
Aaron-Wooi Yik will need to raise their game if they hope to make it into the semi-final for the first time.
Another Malaysian pair, world No. 7 Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, who will be making their debuts in the Finals, will take on Denmark’s world No. 3 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, Taiwan’s two-time Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin and world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
