Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s World No. 14 Lee Zii Jia came back from dropping the first set to beat World No. 4 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the men’s singles first round of Malaysia Masters on Wednesday.
Lee, who lost two-times to the Danish player last year, admitted the victory had boosted his confidence.
“It may be just a little bit of luck, even myself I didn’t expect to win the match after losing the first set. The victory had definitely increased my confidence,” said Lee after winning 14-21, 21-15, 21-8 in 66 minutes at the Axiata Arena.
“The reason I didn’t play well in the first set was probably due to a lot of pressure. I shrug off pressure in the second set because I didn’t expect I could win, and fortunately I was able to turn the match into my favor,” added Lee.
Lee will face India’s Sameer Verma in the next round, who defeated Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-16, 21-15.
Although another Malaysian men’s singles player Daren Liew put up a good fight, unfortunately Indonesia’s World No. 6 Jonatan Christie proved much stronger by beating Liew 21-10, 16-21, 21-15.
Meanwhile, two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan suffered his a first round exit by going down to Jan Jorgensen of Denmark 19-21, 18-21.
In women’s singles, Span’s Carolina Marin put on a show to beat Japan’s No. 4 seed Akane Yamaguchi 21-4, 24-22 to set up the second round meeting with China’s Cai Yan Yan.
