KUALA LUMPUR: National top men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia has booked a berth in the quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championship in Birmingham.
The world number four ousted Japanese player Kenta Nishimoto 21-15, 21-10 in just 40 minutes in the second round early today.
Zii Jia began the 2023 season without qualifying for the quarterfinals of any of the four tournaments he participated in. He was eliminated in the first round in the Malaysia Open, and in the second round of the India Open, Indonesia Masters and, most recently, the German Open.
The 2021 All England champion will face another Japanese player, Kodai Naraoka in the quarterfinal action which is expected to start at 6 pm today (Malaysia time).
Naraoka beat Zii Jia at the Malaysia Open in January.