KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 – Malaysian No 1 shuttler Lee Zii Jia’s ‘yo-yo’ form will be put to an acid test at the season ending BWF World Tour Finals which begin in Denpasar, Bali on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old who is the reigning All-England champion has been drawn in a relatively easy Group B and has India’s K. Srikanth, Thailand’s three-time junior world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Frenchman Toma Junior Popov for company.
Group A is top heavy with reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, World No 1 Kento Momota of Japan, Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke and India’s Lakshya Sen.The top two each each group will advance to the semifinals in the World Tour Finals which carries a lucrative prize of USD1.5 million in prize money.
The World Tour Finals will be followed by the World Championships in Huelva, Spain from Dec 12-19.
In the men’s doubles, Malaysia’s challenge rests on professionals Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Sin after the top pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal winners, failed to make the cut.
The Malaysians are in Group B with Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi, Indonesians Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Erich Yacob Rambitan and French Popov brothers Christo-Tomas Junior.
Women’s doubles hope Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, still groping at the senior level, have a tough, tough Group A against Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai, Indonesia’s Olympic champions Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu and Koreans Kim Soyeong-Kong Heeyong in their path for a top-two finish.
Malaysia have two pairs in the mixed doubles – Rio Olympics silver medalists Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Tan Kian Men-Lai Pei Jing in Group A. They also have Japanese favourites Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino and Danes Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje in the group.
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