National shuttler Lee Zii Jia (李梓嘉) has been determined to reclaim the glory he once had. He made Malaysia proud after bringing home a Bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics early last month and his world ranking has been improving. Shortly after his Olympic victory, the athlete ranked No.7 in the world according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
He was actually recently ranked No.4 late last month despite his early exit from the Japan Open. The badminton player is now one step closer to going back on top now that BWF has confirmed he is currently World No.3!
Back in 2022, Lee Zii Jia was known as the World No.2 in badminton after accumulating enough points from tournaments that year to achieve that milestone. Sadly, things went downhill after he parted ways with his former coach Indra Wijaya the same year. The shuttler faced defeats and endured immense backlash from sports fans, as well as pressure from professionals in the field.
However, he remained focused on improving himself and regaining the title he once had. Fast forward to this week, BWF released the current World Rankings on its official website. As seen in the screenshot below, Lee Zii Jia is now No.3 in the Men’s Singles with 83,716 points, just below Denmark’s Victor Exelson with 88,910 points. His good friend Anders Antonsen is also on the list ranking at No. 5. Although the Malaysian star lost the match at the Japan Open, his Bronze medal victory at the recent Olympics helped boost his ranking.
Lee Zii Jia may be the only Malaysian on the Men’s Singles rank list but he’s certainly not alone. Fellow Malaysians joining him on the other rank list categories are Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the Men’s Double ranking at No.5 and Pearly Tan (陈康乐) and Thinaah Muralitharan in the Women’s Double category ranking at No.8.
May our local athletes continue to improve and show the world what they can do! Congratulations and all the best to them.
Source: BWF
