PETALING JAYA: Men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia’s hopes of claiming his first win in 2026 were dashed after he went down to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in the Indian Open first round.
Zii Jia fought hard against world No. 27 Gemke but it was not enough as he lost 13-21, 21-18, 18-21 in 62 minutes at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday (Jan 13).
The defeat comes a week after the independent player suffered defeat at the hands of India’s Ayush Shetty in his opening match in the Malaysian Open.
Zii Jia is still finding his feet after making his comeback in the home event following an injury-riddled 2025.
Meanwhile, there were better fortunes for mixed doubles pairs Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and Jimmy Wong-Lai Pei Jing when both cleared their first hurdles.
Soon Huat-Shevon beat Taiwan’s Wu Guan-xun-Lee Chia-hsin 21-17, 21-17 to set up a meeting against Thailand’s SEA Games champions Ruttanapak Oupthong-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat in the second round.
Jimmy-Pei Jing were also in fine form when they ousted Japan’s Yuta Watanabe-Maya Taguchi 21-10, 23-21.
The independent duo will next face the winners of the clash between China’s top seeds Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping and Denmark’s Mads Vestergaard-Christine Busch.
Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin narrowly missed out on a huge upset win after going down 21-17, 16-21, 20-22 to Thailand’s third seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Supissara Paewsampran in 57 minutes.
