KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 — National ace shuttler Lee Zii Jia overcame his first hurdle at the 2023 All England Badminton Championships after beating Thailand’s Vietnam SEA Games gold medallist Sitthikom Thammasin 21-12, 21-15 in straight sets.

The 24-year-old, ranked 4th in the world, took just 33 minutes to sweep aside the Thai ace at the Birmingham Arena, today.

Zii Jia, the 2021 All England champion, will face either Kenta Nishimoto from Japan or Canada’s Brian Yang in the second round tomorrow.

Since winning the Thailand Open in May last year, Zii Jia has not won a title, or more precisely has not come close to even moving past the second round.

Zii Jia’s 2022 season has ended in the early stages in all four championships that he had participated, as he had lost in the first round of the Malaysia Open and second round in the India Masters, Indonesia Masters and most recently the German Open.

Zii Jia began the 2023 season without qualifying for the quarter-finals of all four tournaments he participated when he was eliminated in the first round in Malaysia Open, followed by second round in the India Open, Indonesia Masters and the latest German Open last week.

Meanwhile, national men’s top doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik were shown the exit by non-seeded Indonesian pair Leo Rolly Carnando-Daniel Marthin, 18-21, 21-14, 13-21 in a battle lasting 60 minutes. — Bernama